Hadi Rostami, a prisoner sentenced to amputation has warned that his sentence may soon be carried out, according to a message he released from Orumiyeh Central Prison.
Hadi Rostami, who was arrested in 2017 on theft charges and sentenced to amputation of four fingers on his right hand, has been moved to various prisons across Iran six times over the past few years and claims to have been severely tortured for protesting against his sentence.
Rostami has written letters to Iranian authorities, including the Supreme Leader, the head of the judiciary, and the attorney general, but received no response. In his message, he appeals to human rights organizations to intervene on his behalf.
He said: “I have written several letters for my case, to the head of the judiciary, to the parliament, and to the supreme leader. I did not receive any response to any of these letters. I had to turn to international organisations when I was in the Greater Tehran Central Penitentiary in 2022. I spoke to them several times to make my voice heard. In my own country, even the attorney general, the supreme leader, the speaker of the parliament, to whom I wrote several letters, did not hear my voice.”
The prisoner also reported being threatened with execution of his sentence by Atabati, the chief justice of West Azerbaijan province, and Peyman Khanzadeh, the head of Orumiyeh Central Prison.
Rostami was previously sentenced to eight months of imprisonment and 60 lashes for “disturbing prison order” in 2020, and his flogging sentence was carried out in May 2021.
He received another eight-month sentence and 45 lashes by the Criminal Court of Orumiyeh, following a complaint by Farhad Hajebi Miyandoabi, the chief inspector of the prison, in March 2023 on the same charge.
Rostami 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.
