ISNA - Iranian students' news agency

http://fars.isna.ir/Default.aspx?NSID=5&SSLID=46&NID=23776

Iran has unveiled its latest innovation in criminal punishment ? a machine that cuts off the fingers of thieves.

Photographs appearing to show a blindfolded man having his fingers severed by the mechanical amputation device have been published by an official Iranian press agency.
According to the INSA news service, the prisoner used to demonstrate the brutal contraption had been convicted of theft and adultery by a court in Shiraz last Wednesday.
A series of pictures show three masked officials, clad entirely in black, holding the man's right hand in a vice while one turns a wheel operating the guillotine in the manner of a rotary saw.
In none of the four closely cropped images does the bearded prisoner's expression register pain, suggesting that he may have been drugged.
Following the public amputation, Ali Alghasi, the Shiraz district's public prosecutor, announced sentences against criminals are to become increasingly severe.
This warning, issued without explanation, may be an attempt by authorities to deter public protest ahead of June's general elections.
The Iranian government's deplorable human rights record has been well documented.
Public execution, including death by stoning, and torture, including flogging and amputation, are routine.
Amnesty International led international outcry over the execution of 21 year-old Ali Naderi earlier this month for the alleged murder of an elderly woman killed during the course of a burglary ? a crime he committed when he was 17.
It is illegal under international law to execute anyone for a crime committed as a minor.