Iran’s supreme leader pardons almost 3,000 prisoners including 40 foreigners

At least 40 foreign nationals pardoned by Ali Khamenei on Prophet Mohammed’s birth anniversary

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei speaks during a meeting with Iran’s president Masoud Pezeshkian in Tehran, Iran (via REUTERS)

Iran's supreme leader Ali Khamenei has granted mass amnesty to thousands of prisoners, including foreigners, the state media reported.

Mr Khamenei agreed to pardon and commute the sentences of 2,887 prisoners following a proposal from judiciary chief Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejeh, state-run IRNA reported on Friday.

The pardons were granted on the occasion of the birth anniversary celebrations of Prophet Mohammed and Shia scholar Jafar al-Sadiq.

At least 40 foreign nationals and 39 others convicted of anti-state crimes were among those pardoned, the report stated. The death sentences of 59 people were commuted to imprisonment, it said.

About 1,290 prisoners would be released, while 1,596 other inmates would receive sentence reductions, according to the report, which did not confirm when the prisoners would be released.

Faezeh Hashemi, the politician and daughter of former president Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, was released from prison early.

She was arrested in September 2022 and sentenced to five years of prison during mass protests following the death of Mahsa Amini – a Kurdish-Iranian woman who succumbed in a hospital after her arrest by the country’s morality police over allegedly not wearing her hijab to the liking of the authorities.

Iranian officials in June said more than 8,000 foreigners, vast majority of them Afghan nationals, were imprisoned in Iran.

Askar Jalalian, deputy for human rights and international affairs at Iran’s Justice Ministry, told IRNA that around 6,620 of the foreign prisoners are Afghan citizens. Pakistan, Iraq, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and India also account for the high number of foreigners imprisoned in Iran, he said.

Earlier in 2023, the Ayatollah reportedly pardoned more than 22,000 people arrested in the anti-government protests that sweeped Iran.

Mr Ejehi said a total of 82,656 prisoners and those facing charges had been pardoned. Of those, some 22,628 had been arrested amid the demonstrations, he said. Those pardoned had not committed theft or violent crimes, he added.