One Hundred Ninety-Nine Afghan Prisoners Transferred from Iran to Afghanistan

One Hundred Ninety-Nine Afghan Prisoners Transferred from Iran to Afghanistan

On March 14, 2017, the Government of Iran handed over 199 Afghan prisoners to the Government of Afghanistan at the Herat Islam Qala border. The Attorney General’s Office (AGO) Chief of Monitoring on Detention Centers, Aziz Ahmad Sarbaz, and Prosecutors of Herat Appellate Prosecution Office, Jamshid Saljoqi and Obaidullah Azimi, and the Acting Warden of Herat Prison, as well as representative of Foreign Ministry and Iran delegation participated in the prisoner exchange program at the Afghanistan-Iran border.    

According to the AGO Chief of Monitoring on Detention Centers, these prisoners are transferred to Afghanistan based on a prisoners’ exchange agreement between Islamic Republic of Afghanistan and Iran. He added this was the third time that Afghanistan and Iran exchanged prisoners.

Mr. Sarbaz explained the prisoner exchange process is an ongoing program occurring over many years. Afghanistan will transfer 125 prisoners to Iran in the near future. Mr. Sarbaz noted their sentencing to imprisonment in Iran for the charges of narcotics, abduction, intentional murder, robbery, and intentional misdemeanor. Fifty-eight of the Iranian prisoners face sentences of execution by Iran’s Supreme Court.  He added the Afghan prisoners came from prisons of Chenaran, Gunabad, Haidarya, Mashad, and Turbat in Iran.

A representative of the Islamic Republic of Iran named Abdullahi commented on the transfer of prisoners and said, “The prisoners are transferred to Afghanistan based on their demand. Their request is reviewed and if it is according to the terms of the agreement, they will be transferred.”

According to Mr. Abdullahi, there has not been a transfer yet of the Iranian prisoners from Afghanistan to Iran. He is hopeful that legal and judicial cooperation may continue between the two countries and there is a transfer of Iranian prisoners detained in Afghanistan during the next round.

A prisoner introducing himself by the name of Mokhtar said, “I was in prison in Iran for 10 years and now I am happy because of being back to my country. I request from government to forgive us.”

Exchange of prisoners between Afghanistan and Iran is according to a prisoner exchange agreement signed in 2005 between the two countries. In 2008, the former President of Afghanistan, Hamid Karzai, enacted the agreement. Before the agreement, Afghanistan and Iran conducted prisoner exchanges.