Iran on Wednesday transferred 620 Afghan convicts back to Afghanistan as part of a prisoner swap agreement signed between the two neighbors a year ago.

Afghanistan’s government last year announced it had signed a prisoner exchange agreement with Iran based on which over 5,000 Afghan detainees in Iranian jails would be repatriated.

“Defending the rights of Afghans abroad, we have signed a prisoner exchange agreement with Iran to transfer all Afghan prisoners from Iran to Afghanistan in multiple phases,” President Ashraf Ghani said at  the time. 

The prisoners who returned on Wednesday will have their cases investigated under the prevailing laws of Afghanistan and based on the agreement between Afghanistan and Iran on the prisoner exchange.

A delegation from Afghanistan visited Iran two months ago where the agreement was finalized on the release of 620 Afghan prisoners convicted by the Iranian judiciary.

“The work procedure is that lists of these prisoners alongside their conviction period, nature of crimes are proposed to the Supreme Court of Afghanistan. The Supreme Court of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan then start the proceedings regarding them based on the agreement which exists in this respect between the two countries and in line with the laws of Afghanistan,” said AGO spokesman Jamshid Rasuli.

Afghanistan has signed prisoner swap agreements with Pakistan, Russia and Iran.

Iran has so far transferred 1,280 Afghan convicts to Afghanistan.

Another batch of 1,500 Afghan convicts are expected to return home next year.

According to reports, thousands of Afghan prisoners are held in Iranian prisons with some on death row after being found guilty of drug smuggling.  

Afghan and the Iranian government initially drew up procedures defining the terms of such exchanges in 2006.