The ayatollah state helpfully provides some useful propaganda to the State Department-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Jan. 7:

Iran: Criminals Lose Hands And Feet As Shari'a Law Imposed
Five convicted criminals in southeastern Iran have received the seldom-used form of punishment of amputation.

The amputation sentences were carried out in Zahedan, the capital of Iran's southeastern Sistan-Baluchistan Province. The five men were found guilty of armed robbery, hostage taking, and firing at police, though officially they were convicted of "acting against God" and "corruption upon this Earth."

Amputation as a punishment is legal in Iran, but there have been no reports of it being used for several years. It is unknown if the meting out of such a punishment now is a new trend or if this was an isolated incident in only one region of the country.

Cross Amputation

With doctors watching, the convicted men's right hands and left feet were amputated. Traditionally, the right hand is amputated for a first serious offense and the left foot for a second serious offense. The right hand-left foot amputation is referred to as "cross amputation."

The Iranian Student News Agency (ISNA) reported the amputations on January 6, though it is not clear when the sentences were carried out or if the amputations were done in prison or in public.

International rights organizations have long condemned punishing people through amputations. Amnesty International, for example, calls it the "cruel, inhuman, and degrading punishment of judicial amputation," and considers it a form of torture.

The deputy director of the Paris-based International Federation of Human Rights and head of the League for Defense Of Human Rights in Iran, Abdolkarim Lahidji, told RFE/RL's Radio Farda that such amputations are considered torture and an illegitimate form of punishment.

"Amputating hands, flogging, all of these kind of [sentences] that are used in Iranian Islamic laws as punishment, all of these are considered torture, [and] torture has been banned in [international treaties]," Lahidji said.

Amputation as legal punishment is still practiced in a number of countries, among them Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, and Islamic regions of Nigeria. They were also common in Afghanistan under the Taliban. Parts of sub-Saharan West Africa have also recently witnessed amputations as a form of intimidation used by various political factions.

Many Iranians are horrified by the punishments.

In a phone-in with Radio Farda, one listener from Tehran said, "These sentences of cutting off hands and legs are barbaric."

Another listener, Leila from Tehran, agreed with that opinion. "I'm totally against these [sentences], the actions of those who amputate hands and legs are satanic and a crime; the team of doctors who was present there are accomplices to the crime," she said.

But Javad Harati, from the city of Isfahan, said he thinks amputations serve a purpose. "I think these sentences should be carried out so that the enemies of Iran and those who are against the revolution don't even think about [working against the revolution]," Harati said.

Pre-Islamic Tradition

Ahmad Ghabel, an Islamic scholar from Qom, told Radio Farda that the use of amputation is a relic of laws from a much earlier time, and not necessarily only from Islamic countries.

"The origin of these [criminal] codes goes back to the time when they were declared. They were the requirements of governing at the time of the Prophet Muhammad. At that time these punishments were accepted in the East, and the West as well as the Middle East. Therefore the use of this code [now] is doubtful," Ghabel said.

In Iran, it is more typical for courts to pass death sentences on those convicted of committing serious crimes: the same day that ISNA reported the amputations, there were reports that two men had been hanged.

A former police official found guilty of stabbing a man to death and raping his fiancee near the central city of Arak was hanged in public while a second man convicted of murdering two people was hanged in Arak prison.

The amputations also come just six months after a man was stoned to death in Qazvin Province, west of Tehran, for alleged adultery. The stoning was widely condemned by the international community and by many Islamic leaders in Iran.

Iranian media report that 16 people have been hanged so far in 2008. In 2007, more than 290 convicts were executed, many in public.

We wonder if those accused of "robbery and hostage-taking" are related to the Baluch insurgency which spans the Iran-Pakistan border. This Jan. 10 report from the Balochistan People's Party (online at UNPO) paints a grim picture:

West Balochistan: New Abuses
The Iranian regime has executed 30 and dismembered 5 Baluch people in seven days in Iran.

On 27th December of 2007, while the people in the West were enjoying Christmas holidays, the Iranian security forces summoned 17 families to go and collect their hanged members. Seventeen young Baluch had been hanged that early morning. The government did not allow the publication of the hanging to be reflected in any media. This was not the first time that a large number of people were executed in one day. This has been the official policy of the Iranian regime to engage in a systematic oppression of Baluch people since its emergence 30 years ago.

On the first day of the New Year [2008] two Baluch men were executed in a prison in the Zahedan, provincial capital of Balochistan, the official news agency IRNA said. Also on the first day of the New Year, 13 Iranians were hanged according to Associated Press which was reflected in other media. The Baluch human rights activists claimed that more than half of them were Baluch.

On the second day of the New Year two Baluch men were hanged and two other were shot dead, according to Isna.

On the third day of the New Year, two Baluch teenagers were shot dead in Zahedan while they were carrying water. These young men had gone to buy water for a wedding ceremony. Zahedan which is the capital of Baluchistan is divided into two parts: Shia part and Sunni part. The Shia part of the city has various different utilities including water. The Sunni part of the city is deprived of major utilities and the Baluch Sunni people must go out and buy water from the market dispensed by water tankers. The Governor of Zahedan confirmed the clash between the Baluch and the security forces in Zahedan after the shooting. The news was also reflected in many local media.

The news of the executions and hangings of Baloch people do not get properly reflected in the National media of Iran as ordered by the government while the international community is unaware of the events the Iranian regime is freely continuing its policy of mass executions and hangings of Baloch people quietly in different cities of Iran. The Iranian news agencies usually give a few lines about the executions of traffickers and rebels what western media like to reflect with reference to the Iranian controlled media. The Iranian people know that the Iranian regime executes its political opponents after defining them as rebels, terrorists and drug traffickers.

Mohammad Reza Sarawani, deputy of Social Affairs of Baluchistan province announced that 76 percent of the Baluch people live under the poverty line, The official news agency of Shana reported on 31 December 07. The official average figure for people who are living under poverty line in Iran is 11 percent. A very simple comparison of the Baluch people who are living under poverty line and the rest of Iranian population clearly indicate a comprehensive discrimination policy against the people of Baluchistan. The Baluch people who are living in such conditions are also subjected to various ways of oppression and repression. This is clearly a crime against humanity to keep the Baluch people poor and backwards and whenever they raise the voice for demanding their legitimate and basic rights, they become the target of the most inhuman and oppressive policies.

We seek to draw the attention of international community, human rights organizations, United Nations, political activists and leaders, journalists and investigators and other people of the world to the plight of the Baluch people in Iran. We seek the help of all human beings to condemn the oppressive policies of Iranian regime in Baluchistan.

We would like to invite all human rights organizations to go inside Baluchistan and observe the plight of the Baluch people on the ground. We seek the attention of the journalists to conduct more research on Baluchistan and write about a people who are the subject of severe discrimination and oppression. We wish to draw the attention of Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, United Nations Commissions for Human Rights and the European Parliament to prepare documentary reports about the political, social and economic conditions of Baluch people in Iran.

The Iranian regime will continue its mass executions and poverty creation policies in Baluchistan until international community puts sufficient pressure on the government to halt its policies of oppression, repression, execution, political exclusion, social deprivation.

Your efforts can make a great difference for the people of Baluchistan. You can stop the execution and hangings of the Baluch people in Iran. You can contribute to their well-being and prosperity.

Do what you can do to help the Baluch people who cannot help themselves at this moment in history.

Baluchistan Peoples Front

Balochistan Peoples Party

Baluchistan United Front, Federal Republicans

Baluchistan National Movement-Iran

Balochistan Mobarizeen Movement