Courts in Iran ordered the amputation of fingers from three thieves as a punishment
In a recent development, the international human rights community has expressed strong condemnation over Iran's practice of finger amputation as punishment for theft. This practice, viewed as a form of torture, cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment, is deemed to violate international law and Iran’s obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR).
The controversy surrounds the grossly unfair trials that often lead to confessions obtained through torture, coercion, and denial of proper legal counsel. Human rights groups consider these punishments as crimes against humanity, illustrating a systemic state-sanctioned sadism designed to terrorize the public and disproportionately affect economically vulnerable individuals.
Recent reports by Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have highlighted the plight of three prisoners, convicted of theft in Iran in July 2025, who underwent finger amputations. These organizations described the acts as "gruesome" and "a vicious spectacle," calling for jurisdictions with universal jurisdiction provisions to criminally investigate and prosecute the officials responsible.
Amnesty International issued urgent appeals, warning about imminent amputations, and emphasized the prisoners’ reports of torture, flogging, threats, denial of legal counsel, and the refusal by Iranian judicial authorities to investigate torture allegations. The organization stressed that the practice violates Article 7 of the ICCPR, to which Iran is a party, forbidding torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading punishment.
Human rights organizations document that from 2000 to 2020, at least 129 such amputations were recorded, but the actual numbers are believed to be much higher due to secrecy and lack of transparency. Other corporal punishments like flogging, stoning, and public hangings further compound concerns about Iran’s judicial system being a “factory of fear” rather than one of justice.
The hunger strikes, not mentioned in earlier reports about the case, were a form of protest against the convictions and punishments. The convicted men, labeled as "professional thieves" with over 40 private plaintiffs in four different provinces, went on repeated hunger strikes to protest the conditions of their detention. Despite the stolen goods not being returned, which could have potentially qualified for a lenient sentence, the convictions involved multiple thefts, primarily of gold jewelry.
The incident was reported by Daily Mail, adding to the international outcry against Iran’s judicial practices. The international human rights community strongly condemns Iran’s finger amputation punishments for theft as torture and violations of human dignity and international law, urging global legal accountability and the abolition of such corporal penalties.
- The international human rights community is urging global legal accountability and the abolition of corporal penalties like finger amputations, which are deemed as torture and violations of human dignity, in the context of Iran's ongoing practice of finger amputation as punishment for theft.
- The controversy surrounding Iran's judicial system extends beyond finger amputation punishments to other corporal penalties such as flogging, stoning, and public hangings, which are causing grave concerns within the general-news and crime-and-justice arenas due to their brutal nature and disproportionate impact on economically vulnerable individuals.
