Shabtabnews In this dark night, I have lost my way – Arise from a corner, oh you the star of guidance.
Al-Monitor – Eight imprisoned men in Iran are set to have their fingers amputated for alleged theft after rights groups said at least three of the men were convicted in grossly unfair trials.
Iranian authorities have informed the prisoners that they will face a guillotine machine in the coming days, Amnesty International said Friday.
According to the rights organization, the eight men were all convicted of robbery and are currently held in a Tehran prison. Two of the prisoners went on hunger strike in late May to protest their sentences. They ended it days later when officials said they would be pardoned.
Human rights activists say a guillotine machine arrived at the medical center of Iran’s notorious Evin prison last month and it has already been used to conduct at least one amputation.
Iran’s penal code calls for the amputation of four fingers of the right hand for a first theft conviction. The Abdorrahman Boroumand Center for Human Rights in Iran says it has documented at least 356 cases of amputation since the 1979 revolution.
Diana Eltahawy, Amnesty International’s deputy regional director for the Middle East and North Africa, called the looming punishments “an abhorrent assault on human dignity” and urged Iran to grant retrials to the eight men.
“Amputating prisoners’ fingers is a form of torture, and is yet another shocking reminder of the shameless inhumanity of the criminal justice system in Iran, which legalizes torture, a crime under international law,” Eltahawy said.
Amnesty called on the international community to urgently intervene and for Iranian authorities to abolish all forms of corporal punishment.
“It is unacceptable that the authorities in Iran continue to commit such criminal acts of cruelty with impunity,” Eltahawy.
