The pardon was granted on Monday May 23, at the request of the country’s Judiciary Chief Ayatollah Sadeq Amoli Larijani on the occasion of Islamic holy days and the anniversary of liberation of the Iranian city of Khorramshahr in the Iraqi-imposed war in 1982.
Article 110 of the Constitution grants the Supreme Leader the right to pardon or reduce the sentences of convicts upon a recommendation from the head of the Judiciary.
The clemency, however, does not apply to all types of convicts, including those who have been sentenced for their role in armed struggle against the country, armed or organized drug trafficking, rape, armed robbery, arms smuggling, abduction, bribery and embezzlement.
Each year in May, Iran commemorates the anniversary of liberation of Khorramshahr, a city in southwest that had been occupied by Iraq’s Ba’athist army in the early 1980s. The city was recaptured on May 24, 1982.