Azerbaijan delivers 22 Iranian prisoners to Iran

Republic of Azerbaijan has delivered 22 Iranian inmates to the Islamic Republic in line with an agreement on swap of prisoners already reached between the two countries.

According to Press TV, the inmates were handed over to Iranian officials through Astara border checkpoint in northern Iran on Monday on the auspicious occasion of Eid al-Adha.

Head of the consular affairs office at Iran’s embassy in Azerbaijan, Nasser Mir-Jamali, told reporters on Monday that the released men will be kept in a quarantine in a prison in northern Iran and will be then handed over to Iranian judicial and security officials.

He added that these individuals had been kept in Azerbaijan prisons mostly on a charge of drug smuggling and will have to serve the rest of their prison sentences in jails inside Iran.

The official noted that this was the 24th round of exchange of inmates between the two neighboring countries and said that 155 Iranians are still serving their sentences in Azerbaijan prisons.

Iran and Azerbaijan on several occasions have exchanged prisoners over the past years following the expansion of political relations between Tehran and Baku.

SS