BEIRUT: Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei agreed to pardon or reduce the sentences of 878 people in honour of the Prophet Mohammad’s (peace be upon him) birthday, the state news agency Irna reported.
Last September, some 80 political prisoners were released, including prominent human rights activist and lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh, just before a trip by President Hassan Rowhani to the UN General Assembly in New York. In October, another 1,241 prisoners were pardoned, according to the Nasim news agency.
Irna did not say whether any of those pardoned on Saturday had been convicted of political offences. There did not appear to be any change in the status of Iran’s two most prominent political prisoners — former presidential candidates Mirhossein Moussavi and Mehdi Karroubi — who have been under house arrest for nearly three years.
Some Iranian officials have called for Moussavi and Karroubi to be freed, a move strongly opposed by hardliners, who have labelled the pair traitors for disputing the results of the 2009 presidential election.
Israel giving back remains of Palestinian militants: Army
tel aviv: Israel has begun to exhume the remains of a number of Palestinian militants to return them to their families for burial, the army said yesterday, a move that could help ease some tension between the adversaries.
Israel and the Western-backed Palestinian authority are currently locked in peace talks being mediated by the United States that are showing scant signs of progress.
Israel has over many years interred the bodies of militants killed in attacks on Israelis at special cemeteries. It has returned them sporadically, usually as part of amnesties or prisoner exchanges.
A Palestinian activist from a group that campaigns for the return of bodies said the remains of 36 militants would be handed over for reburial. The first was transferred to his family in the West Bank town of Jenin yesterday, the activist said.
An army spokeswoman declined to specify the number of bodies being returned or the identities of the dead and said the move followed an Israeli court ruling.
Algeria ex-PM to run for presidency
ALGIERS: Algerian former premier Ali Benflis yesterday said he would stand in the country’s presidential elections, after a 10-year absence from politics after he lost the 2004 poll to President Abdelaziz Bouteflika.
“With honour, determination, confidence and a lot of humility, I took the decision to be a candidate for the presidency of the republic,” Benflis, 71, told the press and his supporters.
Bouteflika on Friday set the date for the vote as April 14, but has still not said whether he himself will be seeking a fourth term after more than 14 years in power.
Agencies
