Hadi Rostami, a prisoner sentenced to amputation of four fingers of his right hand, was transferred to solitary confinement in Orumiyeh Central Prison on 23 May after going on a hunger strike.
Rostami went on a hunger strike to protest against the imminent risk of the amputation of his right hand.
In recent days, the authorities of Orumiyeh Central Prison summoned Rostami to the prison’s Enforcement of Judgements Office and informed him that after the Orumiyeh Court had asked the Head of the Judiciary to determine the status of his case, a decision had been made to carry out the amputation sentence against Rostami and his co-defendants, Mehdi Shahivand and Mehdi Sharafian.
Rostami has been denied contact with his family and family visits.
In 2020, Rostami was sentenced to eight months of imprisonment and 60 lashes for “disturbing the prison order”. The flogging sentence was carried out in the Orumiyeh Court in May 2021.
Similarly, at the end of March, Branch 102 of Orumiyeh Criminal Court sentenced Rostami to eight months in prison and 45 lashes for “disturbing the prison order”.
The case was filed following a complaint by Farhad Hajebi Miandoabi, head of the inspection office at Orumiyeh Central Prison.
Rostami is one of the prisoners sentenced to have four fingers amputated from his right hand on the charge of “theft”.
He was arrested in Orumiyeh on 25 August 2017, 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 amputation of four fingers of my right hand and payment of several billion [Iranian tomans] in restitution of property under case number 100403 in Branch 1 of the Criminal Court of West Azerbaijan Province. I have been in prison for five years. I was severely tortured in the offices of the Ministry of Intelligence in several cities, including Orumiyeh, Ardabil and Bandar-e Anzali.”
In his letter, the prisoner also stated that he knew nothing about 20 of the 28 thefts mentioned in his case.
He also said that the court had ordered the brutal amputation of four fingers of his right hand, disregarding his defence in 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 disabled child and comes from Ilam, in western Iran.
