ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — Four Kurdish inmates sentenced to amputation for theft have appealed their sentence to Iran’s supreme court.
According to official documents seen by Paris-based Kurdistan Human Rights Network, Hadi Rostami, Mahdi Sharafiyan and Mahdi Shahiwand who were arrested by Criminal Investigation Police in Urmia in 2015 were sentenced to have four fingers from their right hand amputated in a court verdict from November 2019.
After appealing the verdict, it has now been taken to Iran's supreme court for review, a close and well-placed source told Rudaw.
The gruesome punishment is set to be carried out under Article 278 of the Islamic Republic's Penal Code, which details how amputations should be carried out, stating that the thumb must not be removed.
The source added that a fourth person, Kasra Akrami from Kermanshah, was arrested in October 2017 by Urmia city police. He was also convicted under the same law and sentenced to amputation.
"He has appealed against the court verdict, too," the source said. "His fate remains unclear."
Rostami, Sharafiyan, Shahiwand and Karami "were tortured when their arrests were made to confess to the charges attributed to them," the source detailed.
Economic crimes like theft have been on the rise in Iran as US sanctions have taken its toll on the nation’s economy.
Iran has been controlled by a strict Islamic theocracy since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Amputation is a prescribed punishment for thieves in Islam's holy book, the Quran.
According to the Iran Human Rights Monitor, at least 215 amputation sentences were issued in Iran between 2007 and 2017. At least 125 of these sentences were carried out – six of them in public.
Iran is also among the world's most prolific executioners. Most Iranians who are put to death are from the country's ethnic minorities, including Kurds, Baluchis, Arab Ahwazis, and Azerbaijani Turks.
