TEHRAN - Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the Leader of the Islamic Revolution, has earmarked 15 billion rials (some $30,000) for releasing prisoners of unintentional crimes.

A total of 6,875 prisoners of unintentional crimes have been released since March 26 last year, according to Asadollah Joulaei, the head of the Blood Money Organization, Mehr reported.

Of the total released prisoners, 320 were male and the rest were female incarcerated due to inability to pay financial debts or inability to pay dues (workshop accidents and traffic accidents), Joulaei added.

The prisoners had a sum of 48.257 trillion rials (nearly $96 million) in debt, he noted.

Freeing prisoners of involuntary crimes is done in three ways. The first way is granting prisoners leave and the second way is providing a number of them with loans to be paid inside the prison.

The third way of assistance is the release of unintentional convicts by paying their debt.

The Blood Money Organization was established in 1990. Since then, more than 160,000 unintentional crime doers who had debts have been freed.

On March 6, Judiciary Chief Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei said the Leader has pardoned a sizable number of prisoners.

Mohseni Ejei also said that over 80,000 prisoners have received pardons as a result of the order issued by Ayatollah Khamenei.

The top judge stressed that thousands who had been detained during recent disturbances in the country are given amnesty.

He added that the number of pardon cases could approach 90,000.

Ejei also noted that the Leader has repeatedly emphasized that it is important to deal with prisoners based on law.

“No one should insult any prisoners in the slightest,” the Leader said, according to Ejei.

MG