Using Legal Clemency Paves the Way to Reducing Prison Overcrowding

Zanjan – The head of the Zanjan Province Judiciary said that using legal clemency paves the way to reducing prison overcrowding.

According to Ambassador Arjan Mahboob Afrasiab, in the training course on the use of legal friendships and alternative punishments of imprisonment, which was attended by the prosecutor of Zanjan, deputy justices and prosecutors, judges of appeals courts, courts and prosecutor's offices, he said: Judges should focus on the maximum use of legal friendships and reducing the criminal population.

He named reducing the criminal population of prisons as one of the priorities of the judicial system of the province and said: Judges should use the friendly institutions and legal facilities provided in the law in order to prevent the unnecessary entry of people into prisons and to release eligible prisoners more quickly.

Emphasizing that judges should be proficient in laws and regulations and have high legal knowledge, Afrasiab said: "With the nobility of these important cases and the use of friendly institutions, we will see a reduction in inventory and speed up the proceedings."

Referring to Article 19 of the Islamic Penal Code and the classification of punitive punishments, he said: Judges, using these punishments, which emphasize mitigating and aggravating actions based on the type of crimes, called for attention to legal harmony in minor crimes.

Zanjan Judiciary Chief Gul stated: Judges should pay attention to the proceedings for one month, which starts from the first of each month. He stated: Sometimes, ignoring this matter, some branches postpone most of the proceedings to the end of each month, and they should divide the work for 30 days.