An Iranian jailed for multiple robberies has had his hand cut off at a prison in the north of the Islamic republic, the judiciary said on Thursday.
The man had confessed to 28 counts of theft and the amputation was carried out in Sari city on Wednesday, the justice department of Mazandaran province said.
It said, in a statement on its website, that the ‘professional thief’ had carried out the robberies in and around Mahmoudabad, a town on the Caspian Sea.
It did not identify him.
The man had confessed to 28 counts of theft and the amputation was carried out in Sari city on Wednesday, the justice department of Mazandaran province said
London-based rights group Amnesty International condemned the amputation.
‘Premeditated maiming and mutilation of individuals is not justice.
‘It is a harrowing assault against human dignity,’ said Saleh Higazi, Amnesty’s deputy director for the Middle East and North Africa.
‘Reforms to Iran’s penal code that would put an end to this outrageous practice are long overdue,’ he said in a statement.
Under Iran’s Sharia-based Islamic law, amputation is permissible for crimes such as thefts.
The number of reported cases of amputations have been few in recent years.
In January 2018 authorities in north-eastern Iran amputated the hand of a 34-year-old man convicted of stealing sheep.
Iran has executed nine children in past year with another 90 languishing on death row as Tehran defies human rights laws
Iran executed seven child offenders last year and two so far this year even though human rights law prohibits the death penalty for anyone under age 18, a U.N. independent human rights expert has said.
Javaid Rehman also told the U.N. General Assembly’s human rights committee that he has ‘credible information’ there are at least 90 child offenders currently on death row in Iran.
Rehman, the U.N. special investigator on human rights in Iran, expressed deep concern at the overall use of the death penalty in the Islamic Republic.
Javaid Rehman also told the U.N. General Assembly’s human rights committee that he has ‘credible information’ there are at least 90 child offenders currently on death row in Iran
He said its execution rate ‘remains one of the highest in the world’ even after a drop from 507 in 2017 to 253 in 2018.
So far in 2019, he said, ‘conservative estimates indicate that at least 173 executions have been carried out.’
He welcomed an amendment to an Iranian anti-narcotics law in 2017 that led to the reduction in executions in 2018 but said ‘there is more work to be done.’
He added that he was encouraged by the ‘enhanced dialogue’ between Iranian authorities and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights ‘on the administration of justice and child offender executions.’
As for the overall human rights situation in Iran over the last year, Rehman cited a number of ‘distressing factors,’ including a declining economic situation that he said was ‘worsened by the impact of sanctions, with serious consequences for the realization of economic and social rights.’
The United States has been ratcheting up sanctions on Iran since President Trump withdrew last year from Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers.
Iran’s execution rate ‘remains one of the highest in the world’ even after a drop from 507 in 2017 to 253 in 2018
The U.S. administration contends Iran is not complying with the accord amid new questions about its activities raised by the U.N. atomic watchdog and is urging other countries to also step up pressure on Tehran.
Against that economic backdrop, Rehman said, those calling for respect of human rights ‘have been intimidated, harassed, arrested and detained.’
‘Between September 2018 and July 2019, at least eight prominent lawyers were arrested for defending political prisoners and human rights defenders, many of whom have received lengthy sentences,’ he said.
In addition, he said, protesters calling for better protection of labor rights at the Haft Tappeh sugar mill have been arrested on national security-related charges, including seven individuals recently sentenced to between six and 19 years in prison, though the head of the judiciary ordered a review of the sentences.
Rehman, a British-Pakistani professor of Islamic law, said journalists reporting on the Haft Tappeh protest and other labor rights issues have also been arrested and detained.
At least 32 people have been arrested since January 2018 for protesting compulsory veiling laws, the majority of them women who in many cases have faced harsher sentences than their male counterparts, he said.
He said cultural workers and artists are ‘reportedly being subjected to arrest and detention for their work.’
Rehman said ethnic and religious minorities are disproportionately represented in Iran’s executions on national security-related charges and among its political prisoners.
‘They are subject to arbitrary arrests and detention for their participation in a range of peaceful activities such as advocacy for the use of minority languages, for organizing or taking part in peaceful protests, and for affiliation with opposition parties,’ he said.
Only three religious minorities are recognized in Iran’s constitution – Christians, Jews and Zoroastrians, Rehman said.
He urged that the constitution be amended to allow all religious minorities and those who don’t hold any religious beliefs ‘to fully enjoy their rights.’