Published
The Iranian justice chief Gholamhossein Mohseni-Edschei said on Sunday that the prisoners should be given the opportunity to celebrate New Year’s Eve “and the birth of Jesus Christ” with their families.
Christmas in Tehran, Iran: Christian prison inmates should be able to spend the holidays with their families.
AFP
Around one percent of Christians live in Iran, most of them from Armenia.
Those Christians who are in jail for minor offenses are now allowed to join their families during the holidays.
Details about the clearance are not clear.
Christian prison inmates in Iran were granted ten days’ leave at the end of the year. Christians who are serving a prison sentence for minor offenses will benefit from the measure. How many prisoners are allowed to leave the prison temporarily and when exactly they will be released remained unclear.
Christians make up only about one percent of the population in the Muslim-majority Iran. Most of them are from Armenia and celebrate Christmas on January 6th.
Members of the Christian minority rarely benefit from pardons
Iran’s spiritual leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei regularly grants pardons or mitigates prison sentences on important religious or national holidays. Members of the Christian minority rarely benefit from this.
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(AFP / sys)