19 October 2020 :

Iran’s Supreme Court has sentenced two brothers to have their fingers amputated for stealing, Iran-HRM reported on 8 October 2020. The Branch 24 of the Supreme Court has upheld the sentence against the men after a failed appeal. According to the verdict, Mehrdad and Shahab Teimouri were sentenced to “have four fingers on their right hands completely cut off so that only the palm of their hands and their thumbs are left. Mehrdad, 30, and Shahab, 35, who have currently been held in Urmia Prison were arrested on 6 December 2018, for theft in Karaj along with another man, Iraj Khatibi. They were tried on 24 July 2019 and sentenced to have their fingers amputated. Khatibi’s conviction was later overturned by the Supreme Court and he was sentenced to 20 years behind bars. In a part of his defense Mehrdad Teimouri has said: “I accept the theft, but not as it was written against me. They accused me of 11 counts of theft. Because I owe three people for previous cases of theft, I was forced to steal to pay them.”