The fate of Hadi Rostami, a prisoner sentenced to amputation of four fingers, remains unknown after he was tortured by prison officers and taken to an unknown location on 12 June.
“On Sunday, 12 June, several prison guards went to the type 1 ward of hall 9 in the Great Tehran Prison and severely beat Hadi Rostami. During this beating, Hadi Rostami’s nose broke and he was taken to an unknown location by officers”, said an informed source in an interview with the Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN).
According to this source, unconfirmed news indicates that the prisoner was transferred to Rajai Shahr Prison in Karaj. But, as he has not been able to contact his family and friends since 12 June, no news has been received about his fate.
In a joint report published on 10 June, the KHRN and the Abdorrahman Boroumand Centre for Human Rights in Iran (ABC) emphasised the imminent risk of finger amputation of at least eight prisoners in Tehran.
In late May 2022, Rostami and one of his co-defendants, Mehdi Shahivand, went on a hunger strike for five days to protest against their transfer from Orumiyeh Central Prison to the Greater Tehran Central Penitentiary and the continued uncertainty regarding their situation.
Rostami, 35, was detained on 25 August 2017 in Orumiyeh, West Azerbaijan province, along with two other civilians named Mehdi Shahivand and Mehdi Sharafian.
Rostami had previously written a letter addressed to the Amnesty Commission of Iran and the UN Special Rapporteur on Iran:
“I, Hadi Rostami, have been sentenced to the amputation of four fingers of my right hand and payment of several billion [Iranian Tomans] worth of restitution of property under case number 100403 at Branch 1 of the Criminal Court of West Azerbaijan province. I have been in prison for five years now. I have been severely tortured in the offices of the intelligence ministry in several cities, including Orumiyeh, Ardabil, and Bandar-e Anzali.”
The prisoner further stated in his letter that he was not aware of 20 of the 28 thefts mentioned in his case and that the court had ordered the brutal amputation of four fingers of his right hand, regardless of his defence in the court.
Branch 13 of the Supreme Court of Iran upheld the sentence and referred it to the Enforcement of Judgments Office of Branch 8 of the Public and Revolutionary Court of Orumiyeh for execution.
Rostami is the father of a child and comes from Ilam, in western Iran.
