Leader pardons, commutes sentences of 809 convicts

Leader pardons, commutes sentences of 809 convicts

Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei has pardoned and commuted the sentences of hundreds of convicts.

Ayatollah Khamenei on Tuesday agreed to a request by Judiciary Chief Ayatollah Sadeq Amoli Larijani for clemency on 809 inmates on the occasion of the Islamic Republic Day, which falls on April 1 this year.

The day marks the 36th anniversary of a referendum in which Iranians voted for the establishment of the Islamic Republic following the collapse of an autocratic monarchy that was solidly backed by the US and its Western allies.

In the two-day referendum staged in late March after the 1979 victory of the Islamic Revolution, more than 98.2 percent of Iranians voted 'yes' to the establishment of an Islamic Republic system.

Since then, the nation has annually celebrated the anniversary of the establishment of the Islamic Republic of Iran, referred to as the Islamic Republic Day.