TEHRAN — The head of
Iran's judiciary on Sunday
granted Christian prisoners 10 days' liberty to spend the holidays with
families, in a rare move towards the minority community.
اضافة اعلان
Gholam Hossein Mohseni Ejei instructed
authorities across the country to issue the dispensation, according to the
judiciary's Mizan Online website.
"The decision is to mark the New Year
2022 and the anniversary of the birth of Jesus Christ," the website said.
Mizan Online did not say how many Christian
prisoners will benefit from the furlough, or when the 10-day period starts.
It said, however, that inmates convicted for
undermining security, organized crime, abductions, armed robberies, and those
sentenced to death would be exempted.
According to local media,
Christians represent just one percent of Iran's total population of 83 million, the
majority of whom are
Shiite Muslims.
Most Christians in Iran are Armenians who
celebrate Christmas on January 6, the day of the Epiphany.
Around that time of year, some shops in
Tehran and major cities put up decorations, including Christmas trees while
people dressed up as Santa Claus stand outside stores.
Iran's supreme leader
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei often grants amnesty to prisoners or reduces their sentences to mark Muslim
holidays.
But it is rare for Iranian authorities to
announce such measures concerning members of the Islamic republic's Christian
minority.
This year Iranian President
Ebrahim Raisi visited the Tehran home of the family of a Christian Armenian
"martyr" who died in the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq war on Christmas Eve,
the official IRNA news agency reported.
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