A Jurisprudential Study of Internet Theft With Reference to Imam Khomeini's Viewpoints

The universalization of the use of computer and Internet in less than half a century has introduced to the world a phenomenon called Internet (computer) crime in general and Internet theft in particular, which can be very endangering from security point of view. The present article is an attempt to study this offense from jurisprudential point of view. Also it will be compared with the theft whose punishment is mutilation of fingers. The findings of the present paper show that despite the fact that mutilation of thief’s fingers can be deterrent, it cannot be a suitable punishment forthe Internet or computer theft. However, since there are still some doubts about this kind of theft, the Islamic punishment of mutilation of fingers cannot be used for Internet or computer theft based on the rule of Dar’ ul-Hadd.