State-run media reported that eight people including one woman were sentenced to lashes by Iran’s Judiciary.
ROKNA News Agency reported yesterday that a husband and wife in Mashhad northeastern Iran were sentenced to 74 lashes each in addition to prison by the Mashhad Criminal Court for theft.
According to the report, the man identified only by his first name as Hossein was charged with two robberies and sentenced to 10 years of prison and 74 lashes. His wife Zahra was charged with one robbery and sentenced to four years of prison and 74 lashes.
Yesterday, Iran’s Judiciary Spokesman announced that six men had been sentenced to lashes and prison for economic related crimes, the state-run Mehr News Agency reported yesterday,
The six men were identified as Hossein Zidi, Shahram and Bahram Khobaz Tamimi, and three brothers Mohammad, Yusef and Ebrahim Adam Pira. Hossein was sentenced to 20 years of prison, lashes and banned from state-related jobs. Shahram and Bahram were sentenced to 12 years of prison, lashes and banned from state-related jobs while the three Adam Pira brothers were sentenced to 12 years of prison, 74 lashes and confiscation of money made from their crime.
This brings the total number of flogging sentences handed out by Iran’s Judiciary to 11.
On April 4, five members of the Islamic Council in Tehran’s Parand city were sentenced to lashes by the Public and Revolutionary Court of Robat Karim County. They were charged with economic crimes and transferred to the Greater Tehran Penitentiary.
On April 8, a female political prisoner was lashed in the notorious Qarchak Prison in Tehran, before going on leave. According to the Human Rights News Agency, 35-year-old Zohreh Sarv was lashed 74 times, despite the lashing sentence having been altered to a fine which she had paid for. She was told she could go on leave only on the condition that her flogging sentence was carried out.
Iran’s use of degrading punishments and torture
The Iranian regime is one of the few states that still uses degrading punishments, even though all international civil and political rights conventions have prohibited the use of inhumane punishments such as execution and flogging.
Flogging is regularly handed out by the regime to its political opponents including protesters, and dissidents. More than 100 “offenses” are punishable by flogging under Iranian law. The offenses include theft, assault, vandalism, defamation, extramarital relationships, and fraud. They also cover acts that should not be criminalized, such as adultery, intimate relationships between unmarried men and women, “breach of public morals” and consensual same-sex sexual relations.
According to a 2020 report by Amnesty International, at least 160 were sentenced to flogging for theft and assault as well as for acts that are protected under the international human rights law.
Source » irannewswire