The Iranian judicial system, based on medieval Islamic jurisprudence, punishes with death murderers, rapists and drug traffickers.

The Friday prayer leader of Shiraz, a city in the heart of Iran, had called for more public punishments, as prescribed by “hodud,” Islamic penal law.

After a convicted thief’s hand was amputated in public in Kermanshah, Ayatollah Mohiyeddin Shirazi, an appointee of the supreme leader of Iran, criticized the halting of public punishments, and added, “Those who say that practices like amputating hands belong to the past are themselves part of the past.” He also claimed that imprisonment had no effect “on educating criminals and reducing crime.”…

Kermanshah judiciary head Allahyar Malekshahi promised more amputations in the future and said that citizens had requested the public amputation.

Following the punishment Malekshahi told a news agency that the punishment had been approved by Iran’s Supreme Court. He added that if thieves “don’t want their hands cut off, they should stop stealing.” Also, the Etemad daily quoted Kermanshah’s governor as saying that carrying out hodud in public “has a visible effect on controlling the crime rate.”

Iranian regime’s deputy chief of police, Asghar Jafari, said on Sunday: “Police is ready to carry out hand amputation to deal with robberies,” state-run news agency reported.

He expressed his dissatisfaction that mullahs’ penal code, concerning “amputation of hand as the most important [article] is not being enforced.” He added: ”Evading to carry out these sentences is the main reason why these crimes are not uprooted in the country,” and “this is followed by escalation of insecurity  in the country.”

“If God’s punishment is carried out in the country, more than 90 percent of crimes related to robberies will not happen and this is in the interest of country’s security and the credibility of the Islamic Republic of Iran,” he added.