IEA and Iran officials discuss handover of Iranian prisoners

The Iranian embassy in Kabul said in a statement on Sunday that its deputy ambassador, Sayed Hasan Murtazavi, met with the Islamic Emirate’s Attorney General, Mawlavi Shamsuddin Pahlavan to discuss judicial and legal cooperation and the process of handing Iranian prisoners in Afghanistan over to Iranian authorities.

According to the statement, the IEA’s Attorney General promised that the process of handing over the prisoners to Iran’s judicial authorities would begin soon. The statement also noted that the IEA is carefully following the demands of the Islamic Republic of Iran in light of the “expansion of relations and commonalities between the two countries”.

“For Tehran, the follow-up of issues related to Iranian prisoners in Afghanistan was accompanied by disturbances in the past, but we hope that in the current conditions, the problems of Iranian prisoners are solved in the shortest possible time so they can return to Iran,” Iran’s deputy ambassador to Kabul said.

The Iranian embassy has reported that around 6,000 Afghan prisoners are currently serving their sentences in Iranian prisons, and 857 Afghan prisoners have been handed over to the IEA officials with the agreement of both sides. The Islamic Emirate has thanked Iran for the release of the prisoners and demanded the continuation of the process of examining the remaining cases related to Afghan citizens.