ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - A human rights watchdog reported a series of abuses in Iran during July, including the execution of at least four people and the amputation of the fingers of three prisoners, a punishment described as "torture" by a United Nations expert.
“At least four individuals were executed in Iran during July,” the Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN) said on Friday in its monthly report.
On Thursday, “Iranian authorities amputated the fingers of three prisoners,” it added.
The three, identified as Hadi Rostami, Mehdi Sharifian, and Mehdi Shahivand, each had four fingers on their right hand amputated using a guillotine, leaving their thumbs and palms intact, according to KHRN.
The judiciary confirmed the punishment was carried out.
“Due to the lack of cooperation of the convicts, the verdict to amputate the hands of these three professional thieves was implemented after the legal procedures in the Prosecutor's Office, Criminal Court 1, and with final approval and certainty in the Supreme Court, taking into account all religious and legal measures,” the judiciary’s media site Mizan stated on Thursday.
The amputation of hands is a prescribed punishment for thieves in Islamic Sharia law. Iran’s penal code has a number of conditions for amputation sentences, including that the individual being punished is sane, not coerced, and did not commit the crime at a time of famine.
The punishment has drawn condemnation. UN special rapporteur Mai Sato expressed deep concern in a post on X on Thursday, calling it “a flagrant violation of fundamental human rights” that constitutes torture and “cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment.”
KHRN also reported that a number of death sentences were handed down in July and “at least five kolbars were shot and killed and four others were wounded by Iranian border guards.”
Kolbars are semi-legal porters who carry goods on their backs across the Kurdistan Region border into Iran. Many Kurds are driven into the trade by poverty.
The Oslo-based Hengaw Organization for Human Rights reported that “twelve kolbars were killed or injured” in July.
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