More than half of Iran's prisoners on drug charges

DUBAI, United Emirates (Reuter) Nearly six out of every 10 convicts held in
Iranian jails are drug criminals, the head of the country's prisons
organization said in remarks published in Tehran Monday.

Assadollah Lajevardi gave the total number of prisoners as 138,000 and said
58 percent were on drugsrelated offenses.

He said in remarks reported by Kayhan newspaper that 6,750 of the prisoners
were aliens, most of them Afghans, and 3,275 of the foreigners were sentenced
for drugsrelated crimes.

Lajevardi said that in the last year 106,000 people were jailed on drugs
charges, including addiction, dealing, possession and transportation or
cooperation with drug networks. Most were retail distributors.

He said prison authorities had been asked to change prison cultural areas
into accommodation to ease congestion and new jails were being built.