Iranian authorities’ arguments in defence of amputation expose outrageous inhumanity: Amnesty International

 Amnesty International has condemned the amputation of fingers of two young Iranian prisoners in the city of Mashhad in on Sunday 28 June.

“These brutal punishments flagrantly violate international law and there is no place for them in the criminal justice system. The punishment of amputation is torture, a crime under international law,” Amnesty International said in a statement on Wednesday, 1 July.

“However, Iran’s Penal Code continues to prescribe corporal punishments, such as amputation, flogging and blinding, which violate the prohibition of torture and other ill-treatment. Under Article 278 of Iran’s Penal Code, the punishment for first-time theft is ‘amputation of the full length of four fingers of the right hand of the thief in such a manner that the thumb and palm of the hand remain.’ Theft for the second time is punishable by ‘amputation of the left foot in such a manner that half of the sole and part of the place of anointing [during religious ablution] remain.’ Third and fourth time offenders are punished with life imprisonment and the death penalty, respectively. “

“Iranian authorities have on numerous occasions defended amputation, including in public, as the best punishment for deterring theft and regretted that they cannot practice it as widely as they would like to because of international condemnation. A month ago, Ayatollah Naeem Abadi, the representative of Iran’s Supreme Leader in southern Hormozgan Province, bemoaned, during a speech in Mashhad, that amputation sentences are not firmly implemented ‘when security can be restored in society by cutting off a few fingers.’ “

“Dismissing the concerns of the UN Human Rights Council about the practice, Mohammad Javad Larijani, the head of Iran’s Human Rights Council, denied, in October 2010, that corporal punishments such as amputation, flogging and stoning amount to torture and claimed that they are “culturally justified”.  

“Far from providing any semblance of justice and order, the authorities’ arguments in defence of amputation expose the outrageous inhumanity of a criminal justice system that is bent on enforcing cruelty.”