Abdorrahman Boroumand Center

for Human Rights in Iran

https://www.iranrights.org
Promoting tolerance and justice through knowledge and understanding
Amputation and Blinding

Mohsen Sabzichi: A Victim of Punitive Amputation Speaks

Abdorrahman Boroumand Center
Abdorrahman Boroumand Center
November 15, 2017
Interview

Mohsen Sabzichi. Did he deserve to lose four fingers?

Poor, unemployed, and addicted, Mohsen Sabzichi stole some money and papers from a house outside Arak, Iran. After being arrested just hours later, he was taken to interrogators who hung him from a ceiling and pressured him to confess to dozens of counts of stealing. Though he resisted, a prosecutor charged him with “hadd” theft – a crime punished with amputation in Iranian law.

After years in incarceration, the prosecutor met Sabzichi inside prison. “They should put you people in front of a firing squad; you are not human beings. You, who steal, are not human beings…” he said as assistants began to disinfect Sabichi’s hand.

Mohsen Sabzichi lost a hand, a family, and nearly a decade of his life to his country’s judicial system. Are Iranians any safer?


Watch "Do They Really Cut Off Your Fingers for Stealing in Iran?"