Iranian authorities have amputated the hands of three convicted 'thieves' in a rare use of the brutal Sharia law punishment.
The savage punishment, usually reserved for repeat offenders, was given to three men at Urmia Prison in the West Azerbaijan province, in northwest Iran, on Thursday at around 1am.
The men, described by Iran's judiciary website as 'professional thieves', were arrested between August 2017 and November 2019 and convicted in a 'grossly unfair' trial in which the court sentenced them to have four fingers on their right hands completely cut off.
They had 'more than 40 private plaintiffs across four provinces', the judiciary's Mizan website said.
'The sentence of hand amputation for three professional thieves with a history of multiple thefts was carried out in West Azerbaijan province', it added.
