Iran to free prisoners
NZPA-Reuter Teheran Iran will release prisoners on Friday to mark the anniversary of a 1963 uprising in which Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeiny, now the country’s revolutionary leader, first achieved prominence. One thousand drug smugglers have already been released and another 277 prisoners in various jails around
the country have been pardoned and freed to mark a religious festival, according to published reports. An official at Teheran's Qasr Prison said nearly 25,000 prisoners were in jails throughout the country and about half of them had been convicted for drug offences. Another prison official said
one million drug addicts were in Iran. “A large number of prisoners will be freed,” the Qasr prison official told the state news agency Pars. He did not say how many would be released. The uprising on June 5, 1963, against the Government of the late Shah occurred in Qom, a Shi’ite Muslim holy city 130 km south of Teheran.
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Press, 2 June 1981, Page 9
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156Iran to free prisoners Press, 2 June 1981, Page 9
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