Mohsen Sabzichi: A Victim of Punitive Amputation Speaks
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?"