October 04-2013
No additional political prisoners are known to have been freed since the batch freed last month. The government said 80 prisoners were pardoned by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenehi. The Iran Times reported 15 of them were political prisoners. Actually, 13 were political prisoners arrested after the 2009 disorders. The other two were Christian converts. Many news accounts have identified Hamid Ghassemi-Shall, the Iranian-Canadian freed last week, as one of those pardoned. But Shall was not pardoned. An appeals court lowered the charge on which he was convicted and sentenced him to a term that was less than he had already served.