It’s questionable whether this is a weapon, actually, although if you define weapon as “an implement of violence,” it is.

This particular implement of violence is used in Iran to cast fear into thieves, at least those thieves who are not members of or associated with the Government and Shiite clergy. Those thieves get a pass… kind of like the ones associated with our government, when you think about it.

France 24 found images and a story on social media, and followed up:

We contacted many of our Observers in Iran to ask them about this machine. Some of them had heard about it before, but many discovered its existence through these morbid photographs, which were reportedly taken on Thursday. According to the INSA press agency, the man shown getting his finger cut off was charged with robbery and adultery by a court in the southwestern city of Shiraz. He was also accused of being at the head of a criminal organisation. On top of losing one of his fingers, he was sentenced to three years in prison and 99 whip lashes.

via Iran unveils machine for amputating thieves’ fingers | The Observers.

No word on whether the mullah that ordered this barbarity then ate the finger, but it would be about their speed. The article goes on to note that brutal punishments for petty crime are on the rise in the absolutist theocracy.

Can any of our machine-savvy readers tell us what this instrument of torture is made from? To us, it looks like a modification of some kind of small-shop stamp press.