TEHRAN – heads of the three branches of the government have donated sums of money to help release prisoners of unintentional crimes.

President Ebrahim Raisi, Judiciary Chief Gholamhossein Mohseni-Ejei, and Parliament Speaker Mohammad-Baqer Qalibaf allocated a total of 8.6 billion rials (about $170,000) for the issue, IRNA reported.

As an annual tradition, benefactors come together in a ceremony to raise funds for releasing prisoners of unintentional crimes during the holy month of Ramadan (which started on April 23 this year), according to the Blood Money Organization report released on Saturday.

However, due to the outbreak of the coronavirus and the fact that many people are traveling during the new year (Noruz) holidays, fundraising is being held online.

Previously, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the Leader of the Islamic Revolution, 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 over the past 12 months, Asadollah Joulaei, the head of the Blood Money Organization, said on March 26, 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, Mohseni-Ejei said the Leader has pardoned a sizable number of prisoners.

He 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.

MG