TEHRAN The Leader of the Islamic Revolution, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, on Thursday granted amnesty and commuting of sentence to a group of prisoners convicted at public, revolutionary and military courts.

The Leader's decision was in response to a request by Head of the Judiciary Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi, on the occasion of the 22nd anniversary of the Islamic Revolution .

Paragraph 119 of Iran's Constitution authorizes the Leader to pardon prisoners and convicts under certain circumstances.

On various national or religious occasions earlier, the Leader has pardoned or commuted the sentences of hundreds of inmates or convicts upon the proposal of the head of the Judiciary.

Also, the number of prisons throughout the country will be reduced to 60 from 230, Head of the State Prisons Organization Morteza Bakhtiari told reporters here on Thursday.

According to the official, as of next year detention centers will be separated from prisons and only convicted offenders will go to prison.

By the end of the Third Development Plan (March 2005) all prisoners convicted of chargers related to illicit drugs will be separated from other inmates, Bakhtiari said.

Offences are mostly committed by drug addicts and traffickers, he said, adding that at present just 3,700 female prisoners are kept throughout the country most of them on illicit drug charges.

Bakhtiari had earlier said that 170 prisons in the country were to be closed down.

He added that under a rehabilitation scheme adopted to improve conditions of inmates, 170 prisons throughout the country will be turned into detention centers.

The move will reduce the number of prisons to 60, the official said.

(IRNA)