Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei has amnestied or commuted the sentences handed down to a number of Iranian prisoners.

Ayatollah Khamenei on Monday agreed to pardon or reduce the sentences of 669 inmates convicted by the Judicial Organization of the Armed Forces.

The Leader’s decision came in response to a letter from Iran's Judiciary Chief Ayatollah Sadeq Amoli Larijani asking for clemency for a group of prisoners selected by the judiciary remission committee on the occasion of the birthday of Imam Hussein (PBUH), the third Shia Imam and the grandson of Prophet Mohammad (PBUH); Imam Mahdi (PBUH), the twelfth Imam of Shias; and the anniversary of the liberation of the southwestern Iranian city of Khorramshahr.

On May 24, 1982, Iranian soldiers, through a landmark operation codenamed Beit-ul-Moqaddas, put an end to 575 days of Iraqi occupation of the strategic Iranian city of Khorramshahr.

In retaking the city, the Iranians captured some 19,000 soldiers from the Iraqi army.