Iran releases 5 prisoners in swap deal with the US

People march on the Brooklyn bridge in New York during a global protest on the first anniversary of the death of Iranian Kurd Mahsa Amini in custody. Pic/AP

Iran has released five imprisoned Americans who, the US government claimed, were wrongfully detained and are now on a flight out of the country. Quoting a senior Biden administration official, CNN reported on Monday that the release of prisoners is of a wider deal that includes the US unfreezing $6 billion in Iranian funds. The prisoners are being flown on a Qatari government jet to Doha which left an airport Tehran on Monday afternoon local time. Two relatives of the detainees are also on board, along with the Qatari ambassador to Tehran.

As per CNN, the released people include Emad Shargi, Morad Tahbaz, and Siamak Namazi ' who had all been imprisoned for more than five years. Namazi had been detained since 2015. The identities of the other two Americans are not publicly known. The US and Iran will each free five prisoners under an agreement that also involves transfer of $6bn of frozen Iranian assets from South Korea.

Also read: 11,900 people shifted to shelter homes in Gujarat

"Five citizens of the Islamic Republic will be released from the prisons in the US while five imprisoned citizens who were in Iran will be given to the US side reciprocally, based on their will. We expect these two issues fully take place based on the agreement," Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani said.

This story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed, agencies. Mid-day accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability, trustworthiness, reliability and data of the text. Mid-day management/mid-day.com reserves the sole right to alter, delete or remove (without notice) the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever