How atrociously outrageous it is to the mind and heart reading about the recent inhuman Iranian court ruling sentencing a thief to have his hand cut off.

To add sadism to the unspeakable brutality, the sentence was executed on two parallel tracks – first the amputation itself and the apparently enforced attendance and presence of the victim’s fellow prisoners to witness the hellish act as a practical deterrent to similar potential offenders.

No religion worthy of its name claiming belief in a good, just God, Allah, or whatever, should stoop so devilishly low, irrespective of the gravity of the crime.

Rather than depriving the thief of his precious God-given gift, how much more acceptable would it have been if the hand were put to good and beneficial use by decreeing it to an enforced period of social work in atonement of the misdemeanour.

It has been left instead to inhuman, ruthless pseudo-judges under the guise of religious beliefs and observance to choose and prefer a cold-blooded amputation as a sane, rational punishment justly befitting the crime.

No country merits the appellation of civilized when it condones and inflicts such barbaric penalties long abhorred and condemned by truly civilized nations.

As a matter of immediate urgency, the UN, in its role of protector of human rights, should institute and ensure adequate measures are taken against similar vindictive atrocities carried out anywhere and for whatever reason.

Ours is supposedly an era of enlightenment, human rights and justice. Let all nations holding these principles dear to their heart, stand up four square and prove by their deeds their respect for and commitment to upholding these noble beliefs.

Edwin Calleja

BALZAN