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For Local Hudud Advocates: Iran Amputates Fingers of Theft Convict Using a Guillotine Machine, Could This Happen in Malaysia?
By Mihar Dias
(C) Copyright August 2022
This column is addressed to Hudud advocates in this country. It is meant for them to reflect and consider seriously the ramifications of amputating fingers of thieves speedily without anaesthetics!
It is not meant to be used as a model for implementation locally. Not at all. In fact, we are praying that this barbaric method will not find its way into our penal system.
AFP reported that according to Amnesty International, Iran recently used an innovative guillotine machine to amputate the fingers of a man convicted of theft.
A prisoner named Pouya Torabi (30+) was transferred to a hospital as an emergency case, after his fingers were cruelly severed on July 27 at Evin prison in Teheran without anaesthetic.
Earlier, on May 31 Sayed Barat Hosseini, another convict, was also amputated without anaesthetic.
He has since been put in isolation at Evin prison where he is denied any mental and physical health care for infections and trauma.
According to Amnesty, Sayed Barat Hosseini was advised by authorities that he could have paid to “freeze” his amputated fingers and then have them reattached but he did not have the money for such a service.
How horrible to chop the guy’s fingers off and then ask him to pay to reattach them back! He probably resorted to stealing because he had no money, to begin with.
What a piece of extremely bizarre advice!
Diana Eltahawy, Amnesty’s Deputy Director for the Middle East and North Africa informed the press eight other prisoners in Iran are currently awaiting similar amputations and expressed her concerns that more people will likely be subjected to this barbaric and “unspeakably cruel punishment” unless the international community intervened.
Also, Amnesty said since April 2022, a special guillotine machine was installed at Evin prison to centralise the implementation of amputation sentences issued throughout Iran.
We are sure this must be part and parcel of a process of ensuring speedy administration of justice in Iran.
Thus the above two convicts were transferred from provincial jails to have their fingers chopped off at this central facility now equipped with a technologically advanced guillotine.
According to Iran’s penal code, amputation sentences involve chopping off four fingers of the right hand and since January 2000, at least 131 men have had their fingers brutally removed.
In this day and age where convicts are successfully rehabilitated through other means, it is distressing to know that a country like Iran still insists on lobbing off fingers for petty thefts.
For those advocates of hudud laws in this country think again about how useful these petty thieves could be to the country once they are properly rehabilitated but with their fingers still intact.
I wonder what part of the convict’s body these hudud advocates plan to chop off for major crimes, like corruption involving billions by politicians, from both sides of the divide.
I suppose it would be more than just fingers! I imagine they would have very little limbs left by the time the hudud champions are through with them.
Anyway, let’s hope we do not have to resort to using the guillotine as a form of punishment in this country!
Mihar Dias is a content creator under the Newswav Creator programme, where you get to express yourself, be a citizen journalist, and at the same time monetize your content & reach millions of users on Newswav.
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