Iran to Handover 1,700 Afghan Prisoners to Afghanistan Interim Govt

The Iranian Government is expected to hand over 1,700 Afghan prisoners who are being held in Iranian prisoners. The first group of more than 500 prisoners arrived at Islam Qala port in Herat on Monday.

“(They) are either 1,786 or 1,728 people that will be transferred to Afghanistan within three days, and these people will be handed over to the Islamic Emirate,” said Fazal Mohammad Haqqani, the Islamic Emirate’s ambassador to Iran, ToloNews quoted.

Mohammad Yousuf Mustari, the country’s general director of prisons, stated that Afghan detainees returning from Iran would be prosecuted using Afghan legal procedures.

 “Their decisions are contingent on these people being kept in our country. Of course, if these people were sentenced to be freed in our courts, they (Iran officials) would agree with us. Many have spent half their time in prison,” ToloNews quoted from Mustari.

The Taliban authorities said that over 400 prisoners had received death sentences from Iranian courts, and several have already spent lengthy prison terms.

The Islamic Emirate authorities have appreciated Iran and said such positive steps could strengthen cooperation between the two countries. 

At least 6,000 Afghans are detained in Iranian prisons, many of whom received varied sentences due to drug trafficking, murder and robbery, the Afghan embassy said.

The Afghan embassy in Tehran was formally handed over to the Afghanistan-led Taliban government, and Fazl Mohammad Haqqani was appointed as the charge d’affairs in Tehran.

Meanwhile, many Afghans who had fled the country out of fear of Taliban persecution and death threats now worry about their security as a result of the Taliban taking control of the Afghan Embassy in Tehran. 

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