Iran has flogged prisoner Hadi Rostami 60 times on 14 February for “disrupting prison order” in Orumiyeh Prison.
Execution of this inhuman sentence given nearly five months earlier, has taken place in Branch 8 of the Enforcement of Judgements Office in Orumiyeh.
It was carried out at a time that Hadi Rostami, who is also sentenced to amputation of four fingers of his right hand, was suffering from physical injuries caused by his two suicide attempts by eating glass, in the past two months.
A relative of the prisoner confirmed the news to the Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN), saying: “About five months ago, a new case was filed against him in Orumiyeh Criminal Branch 113 on charges of disrupting the order of the prison, and he was sentenced to eight months in prison and 60 lashes.”
According to this source, despite his unfavourable physical condition, Rostami was transferred to Branch 8 of the Execution of Judgements Office of the Court of Orumiye in the morning of 14 February, and his sentence of 60 lashes was carried out.
Amnesty International had released a detailed analytical report earlier in December stating that Iranian authorities should immediately stop the imminent plan to cut off the fingers of Hadi Rostami and five other detainees who were convicted to theft after unfair trials based on forced confessions obtained under torture.
In the past two months, Rostami twice committed suicide by eating glass to protest his detention in the security ward of Orumiyeh Central Prison and the risk of the execution of his sentence.
Despite his serious physical and health condition and urgent need to be sent to a hospital outside the prison after eating glass, Rostami was kept in prison due to the opposition of the inspector and the head of the prison.
The prisoner has suffered internal bleeding several times in the past month due to the shards of glass in his digestive system.
Rostami was internally exiled to Tabriz Prison from Orumiyeh Central Prison on 19 December 2020, without prior notice. However, Tabriz prison officials refused to accept him for a long period and he was returned to Orumiyeh Central Prison after one day.
On 8 December 2020, Rostami wrote a letter to Ali Akbar Garousi, Chief Justice of West Azerbaijan province, saying he had been tortured during his detention by intelligence agents and that he and his two co-defendants had been unjustly sentenced based on their confessions under torture. He demanded re-examination of the case and revocation of the amputation order in his letter.
According to the statistics compiled by the KHRN, there are currently six prisoners convicted of “theft” and sentenced to “amputation of four fingers of a hand”. These prisoners are the 33-year-old Hadi Rostami, 37-year-old Mehdi Sharafian, 42-year-old Mehdi Shahivand, 35-year-old Shahab Teymouri, 39-year-old Mehrdad Teymouri, and 40-year-old Kasra Karami.
