Hadi Rostami, a prisoner sentenced to amputation of four fingers of his right hand, has been sent back to Orumiyeh Central Prison in West Azerbaijan province from Rajai prison in Karaj, northern Iran.
This prisoner was transferred to Rajai Shahr Prison on 12 June after being beaten by the officers of the Greater Tehran Central Penitentiary.
During the beating, one of his teeth was broken and his chest and nose were severely damaged.
On 15 May, Rostami and two of his co-defendants named Mehdi Sharafian and Mehdi Shahivand were transferred from Orumiyeh Central Prison to the Greater Tehran Central Penitentiary for unknown reasons.
Despite the fact that Shahivand and Sharafian were informed in the past few days that they would be returned to Orumiyeh prison after they pay the transfer fee, the two prisoners are still in Tehran prison.
After the transfer of these three prisoners to Tehran prison and the publication of news about the amputation of a prisoner’s finger in the prison in early June, the Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN) and the Abdorrahman Boroumand Center for Human Rights in Iran (ABC) published a joint statement on the imminent risk of finger amputation that eight prisoners faced.
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.
