20 Iranian prisoners to be handed over from Azerbaijan

Iran Focus: Tehran, Iran, Nov. 25 – 20 Iranian prisoners will be released from detention in Azerbaijan on Tuesday, an Iranian official said.

Iran Focus

Tehran, Iran, Nov. 25 – 20 Iranian prisoners will be released from detention in Azerbaijan on Tuesday, an Iranian official said.

Hadi Sheikh Ghafouri, Iran’s deputy ambassador in Baku, told the official news agency IRNA that the prisoners were serving sentences on various charges.
 
They will be handed over to Iranian officials at the Astara border point in the northern Iranian province of Gilan. According to Ghafouri, they will spend the rest of their sentence in Iranian jails.

Their release comes after a bilateral agreement signed by Tehran and Baku for the extradition of prisoners.

A senior Iranian official in charge of prisoners affairs recently visited Azerbaijan and held talks with Azeri judicial officials.

Seperately on Tuesday, Azerbaijan's ambassador to Tehran, Abbasali Hassanov, said that Tehran-Baku trade had increased from 147 million dollars to 800 million dollars over the past ten years.