Man's fingers cut off in Iran for theft

Amnesty International has condemned Iranian authorities for cutting off the fingers of a man convicted of theft.

The rights group said the amputation, carried out at a prison in the northern province of Mazandaran, was "an abhorrent form of torture".

Iranian officials said the man was found guilty of 28 cases of theft.

Iran's Islamic penal code says theft "on the first occasion" is punishable by the amputation of four fingers of the right hand.

Iranian authorities have defended amputation as the best way to deter theft despite protests by international human rights organisations for it to stop.