Iranian Man’s Fingers Amputated for “Stealing Five Sheep”

The Iranian authorities have amputated four fingers of the right hand of a 35-year-old man for allegedly stealing five sheep from a farm, an accusation he rejected, according to a human rights group.

“Yousef was 34 when he was arrested for allegations of stealing five sheep from a farm that belonged to a member of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC),” the Norway-based Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO) group quoted an informed source as saying.

“Yousef was a builder and contracted to build a room on the farm. He denied the theft and insisted he was innocent throughout the 13 months he was behind bars,” the source added.

The amputation was carried out in Qom Central Prison.

IHRNGO said it was working to find out the man’s last name and exact date of amputation.

“The amputation of a man’s fingers for stealing a few sheep by a corrupt system whose officials compete with each other in stealing and embezzling billions of dollars shows the extent of the Islamic Republic’s cruelty and immorality,” IHRNGO Director Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam said in a statement.

“[Supreme Leader Ali] Khamenei, officials, judges and the executors of these medieval punishments must be held accountable for such crimes,” he added.

Earlier this year, the US-based human rights network HRANA reported that judicial authorities in Qom province had amputated the fingers of two individuals convicted of theft.

Three other convicts face the same “inhumane punishment,” it added.

According to the Abdorrahman Boroumand Center, which specializes in Iranian human rights research, authorities in Iran have amputated the fingers of more than 130 men over the past 23 years.

Amnesty International says the victims of judicial amputations are overwhelmingly from impoverished backgrounds and lack legal representation of their choosing. 

The country’s Islamic Penal Code provides for various corporal punishments amounting to torture, including amputation, flogging, blinding, crucifixion and stoning.

For certain types of theft, those convicted shall “have four fingers on their right hands completely cut off so that only the palm of their hands and their thumbs are left.”

The authorities use a guillotine machine to amputate the fingers.