Iran to executive amputation sentences for robbery convictions amidst unfair trial concerns – JURIST
The Iranian authorities are set to carry out finger amputation sentences against three prisoners as early as April 11, 2025. Amnesty International warned Friday that amputation sentences, amounting to torture, and the denial of legal representation are violations of international law.
Iranian authorities have informed the men—Hadi Rostami, Mehdi Sharifian, and Mehdi Shahivand—that they are sentenced to “have four fingers on their right hands completely cut off so only the palm of their hands and thumbs are left.” Their sentences may be carried out as early as April 11, 2025. Amnesty International has urged the international community to intervene and pressure Iran to halt what it calls a “spectacle of brutality.”
According to the group, the sentences are reportedly based on coerced confessions obtained under torture and issued following trials Amnesty describes as grossly unfair. The prisoners were convicted of robbery in 2019 and sentenced to the removal of four fingers from their right hands.
The three men were denied access to legal counsel during the investigation stage and were convicted based on confessions extracted through severe physical and psychological abuse. These included beatings, floggings, and threats of sexual violence. Despite allegations of torture being raised at trial, Iranian courts—including the Supreme Court—failed to order independent investigations.
Hadi Rostami has written an open letter to human rights organizations, urging them to intervene:
I, Hadi Rostami, an inmate from Ilam, have been incarcerated in Orumiyeh Central Prison since 2017 on charges of “theft” and sentenced to the amputation of four fingers on my right hand—despite my innocence. I have repeatedly stated that I have no knowledge of the 22 cases of theft listed in my file. However, in the detention centre of the Orumiyeh’s Criminal Investigation Department, I was subjected to severe torture and forced to sign blank papers. Even then, I continued to assert my innocence, but my voice was ignored.
The sentence, in accordance with Iran’s Islamic Penal Code, is part of a broader framework of corporal punishment that has been used to address crimes such as theft. While amputation is legally sanctioned in Iran, this practice contradicts various international legal standards, especially human rights obligations under treaties that Iran is a party to. This reflects a legal system that remains resistant to international pressure for reform.
This latest warning follows a similar incident in September 2024, when authorities amputated the fingers of two individuals for theft. Victims of these punishments are overwhelmingly from marginalized or economically vulnerable communities. Amnesty reports that the practice not only inflicts irreversible harm but further entrenches poverty and discrimination against people with disabilities in Iran.
