Iran amputates man’s hand in public

Iran Focus: Tehran, Iran, May 15 – Authorities have chopped off the hand of a man in public in the western city of Kermanshah, a state-run daily reported on Tuesday. Iran Focus

Tehran, Iran, May 15 – Authorities have chopped off the hand of a man in public in the western city of Kermanshah, a state-run daily reported on Tuesday.

“In order to deal decisively against those disrupting national security and order and to carry out the divine law, at exactly 4 pm on Sunday the sentence for Arash’s hand to be amputated in public was carried out in Kermanshah’s Jafaar-Abad Square”, wrote the hard-line daily Qods.

The report said that Arash, whose hand was chopped off, had taken part in 16 robberies.

The sentence had been upheld by Iran’s State Supreme Court, it added. It did not mention, however, which hand was amputated.

Iran’s Islamic penal system regularly practices centuries-old sentences for petty crimes, such as amputation of limbs, eye gouging, stoning to death, and throwing prisoners off a cliff in a sac.