Iran: Officials responsible for finger-amputations must face accountability for torture
Responding to the Iranian authorities’ use of a guillotine machine to amputate the fingers of three men in Urumieh Central Prison on 30 July as corporal punishment imposed after a grossly unfair, torture-tainted trial, Hussein Baoumi, Deputy Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa at Amnesty International, said:
“The amputations carried out on Hadi Rostami, Mehdi Sharafian and Mehdi Shahivand are a stark reminder of Iran’s prolific use of corporal punishment and the inhumanity of a justice system that legalizes brutality. Amputation constitutes torture, which is a crime under international law, and is a flagrant and abhorrent assault on human dignity”.
