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Do-gooders blamed for lack of activity in God’s hand-chopping department

IRANIAN Attorney General Mohammad Jafar Montazeri has been lamenting the clerical regime’s inability to chop off people’s hands because of human rights complaints.

The low number of hand amputations was unfortunate, he said yesterday, adding: “So as not be condemned on human rights issues in the United Nations, we have abandoned some of the divine laws.”

Mr Montazeri told a meeting of police chiefs that it was a mistake to be afraid of “human rights propaganda” and claimed that theft had increased over the past year.

“According to the statistics of the judiciary and the police, unfortunately, robbery is second in terms of crimes in the society.”

Mr Montazeri acknowledged the role of the country’s floundering economy, with poverty responsible for some of the thefts.

The last hand amputation was carried out in January 2018 in the north-eastern province of Khorasan Razavi and led to widespread protests. But the head of the judiciary there said: “The hand amputation of the sheep thief was a divine punishment.”

According to the Abdorrahman Boroumand Foundation, the Iranian authorities issued at least 215 amputation sentences and carried out 125 amputations, including at least six amputations in public, between 2007 and 2017.

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