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Iran
Focus
 Tehran, Iran, Feb. 27 – Iran’s prison population has
increased more than 10 times since the 1979 Islamic revolution, the country’s
head of prisons announced.
Ali-Akbar Yassaqi,
head of the Organisation of Prisons of Iran, said
that the total number of prisoners in Iran was 130,118, up from the
13,000 at the beginning of the revolution.
Yassaqi said that 96 percent of prisoners were men
and four percent were women.
The latest figure, however, was lower than the prison figures previously
announced by Iran’s
judiciary.
International human rights groups regularly voice their concern at the plight
of political prisoners in Iran,
but Tehran
maintains it has no political prisoners and describes jailed dissidents as
“criminals”.
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