Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has pardoned or commuted the sentences of nearly 3,000 prisoners following a written request from the head of the judiciary, Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Ejei, Iran’s Tasnim news agency reported Friday.
The pardon also included a reduced sentence and was granted to mark the birthdays of the Islamic prophet Muhammad and the Shiite scholar Jafar al-Sadiq.
According to the state news agency IRNA, the death sentences of 59 convicts were also commuted to prison terms.
Of the total of 2,887 pardons, most of the convictions came from general and revolutionary courts. In 1,291 cases, the prisoners were released, while 1,596 other prisoners were given reduced sentences. In addition, 40 foreigners were pardoned.
Khamenei regularly pardons prisoners, often around Islamic holidays, in a move portrayed by religious leaders as showing mercy.
Following nationwide protests in the fall of 2022, the religious leader pardoned tens of thousands of prisoners. Activists criticized the pardons at the time as a distraction from repressive government policies.
On Wednesday, prominent politician Faezeh Hashemi, daughter of the late former president Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, was released early from prison. She was arrested in late September 2022 and sentenced to five years in prison in the wake of the wave of protests.
An Austrian who was imprisoned in Iran was released a few days ago.
