TEHRAN — As many as 1,887 prisoners jailed for unintentional financial crimes were released over the spring, Blood Money Organization’s director Asadollah Joolaei has said.

The total debt of the prisoners who were freed over the aforesaid period valued at some 1.93 trillion rials (nearly $46 million), Mehr news agency quoted Joolaei as saying. 

However, he explained that 44 percent of the total debt was forgiven by the plaintiffs.  

Out of the aforesaid number some 64 were female inmates who were serving jail times for financial offences, he added. 

Joolaei went on to say that Khorasan Razavi with 252 inmates was the top province for the number of prisoners released over the same period while Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad province was at the bottom of the list with only 17 inmates. 
 
In late May, Joolaei said that more than 113,000 prisoners who had committed unintentional crimes were released in the past Iranian calendar year (March 2017-March 2018).

Total debt of prisoners added up to about 7 trillion rials (nearly $166 million), however, some half of the debts were forgiven by the plaintiffs, he highlighted.

Last year, charity fundraising events helped free more than 10 thousand prisoners and contributions totaled nearly 5.7 trillion rials (nearly $135 million), he concluded.

MQ/MG