Pictured for the very first time, this is the brutal device used by Iranian authorities to amputate the fingers of convicted criminals.
Three hooded men are shown using the crude mechanical saw to carry out the brutal punishment, imposed under the country's strict Sharia law, on a convicted thief and adulterer.
The blindfolded man, who was found guilty by a court in the southwestern city of Shiraz, is pictured being led up to the grisly device, which looks like something out of a woodwork shop.
Brutal: Iranian authorities have released pictures of their crude finger amputation machine
Crimes: The man was found guilty by a court in the southwestern city of Shiraz of buying and selling stolen goods and adultery
Three hooded men then grab hold of the man and his hand is clamped in place with a vice.
With one man operating the rotary blade, the brutal machine does its work and the man's hand is then held up to show the bloody stump before which is then dipped in raw iodine.
Incredibly the man's face shows no pain suggesting he may have been drugged before the procedure.
Following the amputation, a public prosecutor announced that criminal punishments like these would become more severe.
Under Sharia law, amputation, whipping, and even death by stoning are all legal forms of punishment.
The pictures were been released by the country's state news agency as Iranians prepare to go to the polls in June to replace president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad who will have served his maximum two terms.
Incredibly the man's face shows no pain suggesting he may have been drugged before the procedure
Disturbing: The series of pictures shows three masked officials holding the man's right hand in a vice while one operates the rotary saw
Experts believe the pictures are intended to send a clear message that the authorities will come down heavily on anyone found guilty of dissent during the election period.
Mahmoud Amiry-Moghaddam, a spokesperson for Iran Human Rights in Norway, told France 24: 'What is surprising about this is that not only was this a public amputation, but that photos of it were distributed by official press agencies, and that they showed a machine that we had [as] yet never seen images of.
'We have noticed that the authorities have recently been making more and more publicity surrounding cases of corporal punishment.
'Every time we get closer to an election, the number of these incidents increases. And we’re getting quite close to the presidential election. I believe this is a strategy to instill fear in the population so as to avoid any protests.'
On his way out: Iranians are preparing to go to the polls in June to replace president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad who will have served the maximum two terms
Dissent: Authorities in Tehran do not want to see a repeat of 2009's 'Green Revolution', when thousands took to the streets to protest the disputed election result
When Iran last went to the polls in 2009, hundreds of thousands took to the streets in protest over the disputed victory of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in what was dubbed the Green revolution.
Clashes between hardliners and reformers are expected at this year's election and last week authorities rounded up over a dozen journalists and issued arrest warrants for three more.
Sherif Mansour, program coordinator for the Committee to Protect Journalists' believes the preemptive intimidation campaign is part of a 'never-ending effort to brand critics as enemies of the state.'
Earlier this month two men were publicly hanged in the capital Tehran after being found guilty of carrying out a violent street robbery.
Public hanging: Convicted robbers Alireza Mafiha and Mohammad Ali Sarvari are led to gallows in Tehran earlier this month
Alireza Mafiha and Mohammad Ali Sarvari were paraded before a baying crowd of 300 in a public park before nooses were placed around their necks and they were hoisted into the air up by cranes.
The pair had been arrested after posting a video on YouTube in December showing them attacking a man with a machete on a Tehran street.
It showed four masked men on motorbikes approaching their victim before assaulting him with a machete and taking his bag and jacket.
