Iran amputates hands, legs of 5 men as punishment

Iran Focus: Tehran, Iran, Jan. 07 – Authorities amputated the hands and legs of five individuals as punishment for alleged crimes in the volatile province of Sistan-va-Baluchistan, state media reported. Iran Focus

Tehran, Iran, Jan. 07 – Authorities amputated the hands and legs of five individuals as punishment for alleged crimes in the volatile province of Sistan-va-Baluchistan, state media reported.

All five men had their right hand and left foot severed, the state-owned news agency ISNA said on Sunday.

The amputations were carried out in the provincial capital Zahedan, south-east Iran, the report said.

The five men were identified as A. Rigi, A.B. Rigi, A.R. Roudini, D. Pahlevan, and M.A. Jalali.

They had been charged with being “mohareb” (or “waging war on God”) and “corruption on earth” for allegedly robbing people and taking hostages.

Iranian authorities routinely execute dissidents on bogus charges such as armed robbery and drug smuggling.

In the past, Iran’s judiciary has executed political opponents of the Islamic Republic on the charge of being a mohareb.

Sistan-va-Baluchistan Province is home to Baluchis, a predominantly Sunni Muslim ethnic minority.

Iran has witnessed escalating unrest since 2006 in areas populated by Baluchis, who complain of discriminatory and repressive policies by the theocratic regime.

Since 2006, Iranian authorities have stepped up executions in the restive province in what many Baluchis believe is a response to a spate of attacks by dissidents on government and security officials.

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.