January 24-2014
Supreme Leader Ali Khamenehi has pardoned or reduced the sentences of 878 convicts on the occasion Sunday of the birth of the Prophet Mohammad. There were no indications any of those amnestied were political prisoners. The same was true of the 1,241 prisoners amnestied in September for another religious holiday. Twenty political prisoners were freed shortly before President Rohani went to New York to speak to the UN General Assembly and more releases were promised, but so far no further political prisoners are known to have been freed.