Iran extradites 650 prisoners to Afghanistan

KABUL, an official said Wednesday.

Aziz Ahmad Sarbaz, head of the delegation for receiving Afghan prisoners from Iran, told a press conference in Kabul that around 4,000 to 5,000 Afghans were imprisoned in Iran.

He said 650 of the Afghan inmates were extradited to Afghanistan a week back and they were currently kept in western Herat province. However, Sarbaz did not provide further information in this regard.

According to him, Iran had previously extradited 630 Afghan inmates to Afghanistan in 1395 and 1396 solar years.

The cases of these Afghan prisoners would be reconsidered and their jail terms also changed, he added.

He hoped about 2,000 more Afghan prisoners jailers would be brought home from Iran until mid-1398 solar year.

“Only those Afghan inmates whose verdicts are final in their cases and whose identity is clear and are interested to go to their country are extradited”, he said.

“Iran told us that around 4,000 to 5,000 Afghans are imprisoned there and 1,000 of them said that they do not want to be extradited to Afghanistan,” Sarbaz said.

He said Iranian inmates in Afghanistan were subjected to similar conditions and so far 78 of them had been extradited to Iran and eight others were still in Afghanistan jails.

According to the Ministry of Refugees and Repatriation, around 800,000 Afghan refugees live legally in Iran while nearly a million others live there without legal documents.

The Attorney General Office says Afghan inmates extradited to Afghanistan were accused of different crimes but most were imprisoned over drug trafficking.

AGO spokesman Jamshid Rasouli said: “The AGO always tries to defend the rights and freedom of people inside and outside the country and extradition of Afghan inmates from foreign countries is a program of the national unity government.”

He said Afghanistan had agreements with Tajikistan, Russia and Iran on exchange of prisoners and such agreements would be also signed with Pakistan and some other countries in near future.

However, he did not provide information about the number of Afghan inmates currently held abroad, excluding Iran.

mds/ma