Prisoner swap with US done for freedom of Iranian detainees

"Some Iranian nationals are imprisoned and some are wanted on false accusations of circumventing sanctions, especially in the United States. This is while some other Iranian nationals are falsely accused of evading sanctions. It is the Islamic Republic of Iran's duty to make its utmost efforts to secure the release of its citizens and those who were innocently imprisoned. We will use all our means in that regard," Kazem Gharibabadi, secretary of Iran's High Council for Human Rights said on Wednesday on the sidelines of a human rights conference dubbed "The impact of oppressive sanctions on patients health" in Tehran.

"The main purpose of the prisoner exchange between Iran and the US is to release some of our citizens who are in prison," he added. 

Moreover, the Judiciary spokesman Masoud Setayeshi in response to a question about the exchange of prisoners between the US and Iran and the media reports about the alleged arrest of an Iranian-American spy said on Tuesday, "An understanding has been reached and in accordance with this understanding, a number of prisoners will be released. These prisoners were our nationals who were imprisoned and trapped abroad. In other words, there was a hostage situation and these innocent people were kept in prison."

"The freedom of these people is of special importance for us and these people should have been released before. Nothing is worth more than the lives of our beloved citizens. However, some amount of our money was taken hostage and this money that was taken from us has also been released."

The Judiciary spokesman also said, "The prisoner swap [with Washington] was done in a tactful and smart way that the frozen money was also released, and the details of the release of this money have been announced by the governor of the central bank."