A senior Iranian Judiciary official says the country has a total of 3,800 prisoners abroad, expressing concern that some of the inmates are serving their jail terms in inappropriate conditions.
Kazem Gharibabadi, the Judiciary chief’s deputy for international affairs and secretary of the country’s High Council for Human Rights, made the remark in an interview published by Iran's official IRNA news agency on Monday.
Gharibabadi said a number of Iranians are in overseas prisons for their offenses or due to injustice or on political and groundless pretexts, including for circumventing illegal sanctions, and that they need to be protected.
Stressing that the duty of the administration in different sectors of the Islamic Republic is to defend the rights of such prisoners even if they are criminals, the senior Iranian Judiciary official said, “Some of these Iranian prisoners are not in good condition abroad and many problems have arisen as some of them are the heads of their families.”
Gharibabadi said various sessions have been held in coordination with the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Justice to expand support for the Iranians imprisoned abroad, especially those whose families are without guardians.
He said consultations have begun with some countries in order to transfer Iranian convicts and prepare conditions for them to enjoy better services in prisons.
“In this regard we have planned for high-ranking judicial officials to travel to the countries where our compatriots face more problems so that problems can be solved more quickly through the direct interaction of judiciary systems.”
Pointing to the fact that 2,000 of the 3,800 Iranian prisoners abroad are in Turkey, the Judiciary official called on Iranians to respect the laws of other countries and be a good representative of the Islamic Republic and the Iranian culture.
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