ERBIL, Kurdistan Region—The Iranian authorities have agreed to return at least 11 Kurdish prisoners held in the country to the Kurdistan Region based on a prisoner swap agreement with the Kurdish government. “The Iranian government is ready to send back 11 citizens of Kurdistan Region imprisoned in Iran on different offensives,” said Abdullah Akreyi, head of Iran-KRG relations in Kurdistan’s Department of Foreign Affairs. With this move Iran meets the terms of the agreement it signed with the Kurdish government. According to Akreey, the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) has so far returned 96 Iranian nationals who were held in Kurdish prisons in the last few months. The prison term of these 11 Kurdish prisoners ranged from three years to life imprisonment. Families of Kurdish prisoners in Iran put pressure on the Kurdish authorities to seek an agreement with Tehran.
