Iran today executed amputation sentences on two prisoners, Shahab and Mehrdad Teymouri, cutting off four fingers of each brother’s right hand using a guillotine device at Orumiyeh Central Prison, the Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN) has learned.
The executions come after KHRN raised concerns about the likelihood of these sentences being carried out in a recent report, highlighting that Orumiyeh’s forensic team had visited the brothers in solitary confinement days before the amputations to carry out medical examinations, including blood tests.
A source confirming the news told KHRN: “In the early hours of Tuesday, 29 October 2024, Mehrdad and Shahab Teymouri were moved from solitary confinement in Orumiyeh Central Prison to the area where sentences are executed, and the amputation of four fingers on their right hands was carried out in the presence of judicial officials and the West Azerbaijan Province Prisons Organisation.”
The source added: “After the sentence was executed, the two were taken by ambulance from Orumiyeh Central Prison to the prisoner’ reception area of Imam Khomeini Hospital in Orumiyeh, and they have since been deprived of family visits and contact.”
According to the source, a guillotine had been brought into Orumiyeh Central Prison days earlier by court order, and that following the amputations there is growing concern about five other prisoners held at Orumiyeh – Hadi Rostami, Mehdi Sharifian, Mehdi Shahivand, Kasra Karami and Morteza Esmaeili – who are also at risk of imminent amputation sentences.
A relative of the Teymouri brothers claimed that the executions were enforced under pressure from the Orumiyeh prosecutor, Hossein Majidi, and the head of Orumiyeh Central Prison, Khanzadeh.
Mehrdad Teymouri, born on 21 September 1990, and Shahab Teymouri, born on 9 June 1985, from Sarpol-e Zahab and residing in Karaj, were arrested on 6 December 2018, along with another civilian, Ebrahim Khatibi, for alleged theft in Malard, Tehran Province.
According to a court document obtained by KHRN, the Orumiyeh Criminal Investigation Department alleges that the three Karaj residents, who reportedly have a history of theft and legal restitution, committed a robbery at a residence in Orumiyeh to pay the restitution before being arrested in Malard.
On 24 July 2019, the trial of the three prisoners was held at Branch One of the Orumiyeh Juvenile and Criminal Court, and all three were sentenced to the amputation of their right hand fingers for theft.
Following appeals by their court-appointed lawyers, the case was referred to Branch 24 of the Supreme Court, which in April 2020 upheld the sentences of Shahab and Mehrdad Teymouri, while overturning the sentence of Ebrahim Khatibi on the grounds that his crime did not meet the criteria for punitive amputation.
Currently, five other prisoners in Orumiyeh Central Prison – Hadi Rostami, Mehdi Sharifian, Mehdi Shahivand, Kasra Karami and Morteza Esmaeilian – are also serving sentences that include the amputation of fingers.
Previously, on 25 September 2020, the World Medical Association (WMA) issued a strongly worded letter urging Iranian officials to lift the amputation sentences, stating that such sentences leave individuals with irreversible disabilities and undermine their dignity.
The international organisation stressed that such inhumane practices have no place in nations governed by law, stating: “The WMA will support any Iranian doctor who refuses to participate in finger amputations on prisoners,” noting that “the involvement of doctors in torture practices is a flagrant violation of medical ethics.”
International conventions on torture and civil and political rights prohibit the use of inhumane punishments such as amputation.
Although Iran has ratified the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, it remains one of the few countries that has not acceded to the UN Convention against Torture and continues to impose amputation sentences for certain crimes.
