Hand Amputation Sentences for Three Individuals Convicted of Theft in Tehran

According to reports, judges from the fifth branch of the Tehran Criminal Court have sentenced two brothers and an accomplice to "hand amputation and restitution" for theft. The International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran website reported on Thursday, February 17, that this campaign has previously requested Iranian officials, including in 2014, to stop the use of "inhumane and degrading punishments such as finger amputation or flogging." The news of the hand amputation sentence for the three theft suspects was first published in the February 13 issue of the Farhikhtegan newspaper. According to this report, the sentence was issued on Saturday, February 12, and the two brothers and their accomplice were sentenced to "hand amputation and restitution," while one of the three young men was also sentenced to three years in prison for his eighth theft. According to the newspaper, these individuals confessed to eight thefts from villas on Mirdamad Street, with an "approximate value of the stolen goods around 500 million tomans." The Farhikhtegan reporter noted that according to legal experts, "the conditions for issuing a hand amputation sentence are so strict that we rarely witness such rulings." Majid Rouhani, a lawyer, also stated in an interview with Farhikhtegan that sentences like hand amputation and execution require a specific order from the head of the judiciary for implementation after the ruling is confirmed by the Supreme Court. The Islamic Penal Code grants judicial authorities the power to issue a sentence of amputation of four fingers of a thief in the first instance, and in the second instance, they can order the amputation of the "left foot of the thief." The Islamic Penal Code does set multiple conditions for proving the necessity of issuing this sentence, but in recent years, sentences of finger amputation for several thieves have been carried out in various cities in Iran, including Yazd, Bushehr, Mashhad, and Ilam. Human rights advocates describe such punishments as "inhumane and brutal," and some criminologists believe that this type of punishment "can incite violence in society." Iran, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, and Somalia are among the countries that implement the law of finger amputation for thieves.