KABUL, AFGHANISTAN – Iran has handed over 165 Afghan prisoners to Taliban authorities, including nine inmates, among them one woman, who were previously sentenced to death, the Taliban-run Afghanistan embassy in Tehran said on Friday.
In a statement, the embassy said the prisoners crossed into Afghanistan after their identities were verified and all necessary legal procedures were completed at the border crossing.
Among the group were eight men and one woman who had received death sentences from Iranian courts. Those sentences were subsequently commuted to long-term imprisonment, according to the statement.
“Through the efforts of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Embassy of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan in Tehran, these individuals were pardoned from the death penalty, and their sentences were commuted to long-term imprisonment,” the embassy added.
The embassy did not specify the crimes for which the prisoners were convicted.
It also said that, in a separate exchange under the 11th round of the prisoner transfer framework, one Iranian woman serving a prison sentence in Afghanistan was handed over to Iranian authorities.
A day earlier, Iran handed over 408 Afghan prisoners from different prisons across the country to Taliban authorities, according to the embassy’s previous statement. The embassy did not provide details on the charges or remaining sentence lengths but said additional transfers are expected in the coming days.
The prisoner exchange mechanism between Iran and Afghanistan has been in place for several years under a bilateral agreement that predates the Taliban’s return to power in Kabul in 2021. Under the arrangement, prisoners are repatriated to serve the remainder of their sentences in their home countries.
The total number of Afghan nationals currently detained in Iran remains unclear. Taliban officials have previously estimated that of about 12,000 Afghans held in neighboring countries, approximately 8,000 are in Iranian prisons.
Iran hosts one of the largest Afghan migrant populations in the region, and thousands have been detained over the years on charges ranging from illegal entry to more serious offences. Rights groups have also reported that Afghan prisoners have been among those executed in Iran in recent years.
