At least 16 thousand prisoners temporarily released amid the COVID-19 spread in Iran will not return to prison as their sentence term will be over, Asghar Jahangir, ISNA reported referring to the head of Iran's prisons organization said on Monday.

The Iranian authorities in early March decided to temporarily release a number of prisoners amid the spread of coronavirus in the country. As Iran's Chief Justice Ebrahim Raisi said prisoners are released in such a way as not to pose a threat to security in society, TASS reported.

Iranian Supreme Court spokesperson noted that about 114 thousand people who were in Iranian prisons took advantage of the vacation. Moreover, about 1 thousand foreign citizens were among them.