Breathing in Confinement

31 July 2025
News Category: Prisoners

Breathing in Confinement – The amputation sentence of four fingers from the right hand of three prisoners — Hadi Rostami, Mehdi Sharafian, and Mehdi Shahivand — was carried out in the Central Prison of Urmia.

According to Breathing in Confinement, the news outlet of the Prisoners’ Rights League in Iran, this corporal punishment was executed on the night of Wednesday, 30 July 2025, in the presence of Peyman Khanzadeh, the head of Urmia Prison; Saeed Nouri, deputy prosecutor; and prison medical staff. According to human rights sources, the three men were summoned from their ward at around 10 p.m., handcuffed, shackled, and blindfolded before being transferred to the execution site. The punishment was reportedly carried out shortly before midnight using a mechanical guillotine device, after local anaesthesia was administered.

Hadi Rostami (born 1986, from Ilam), Mehdi Sharafian (born 1984, from Khorramabad), and Mehdi Shahivand (born 1996) had all been arrested in Urmia roughly ten years ago. On 19 November 2019, they were sentenced by the Juvenile and Children’s Criminal Court to the amputation of four fingers of their right hands and restitution of stolen property, on charges of theft. The verdict was upheld in May 2020 by Branch 13 of the Supreme Court, presided over by Judge Ali Shoushtari.

The enforcement of such a brutal sentence, while many state officials and their relatives continue to live lavishly without accountability despite widespread corruption, embezzlement, and the looting of public funds, illustrates the systematic injustice and deep social inequality embedded in Iran’s judicial system. Victims of such punishments often come from impoverished and marginalised backgrounds, lacking adequate legal support and the ability to defend themselves.

While the theft of a few items or small amounts of money by someone impoverished results in irreversible and cruel penalties like amputation, high-ranking officials responsible for stealing billions remain in positions of power or evade justice entirely with the protection of influential institutions.

Amputation is fundamentally incompatible with international human rights standards, particularly Article 5 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and Article 7 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, both of which prohibit torture and cruel, inhuman, or degrading punishment. The United Nations and human rights organisations have repeatedly categorised such sentences as a clear form of torture.