On the eve of Teacher’s Week (May 1-7), students of Allameh Helli School in Tehran Municipality district 3, in addition to appreciating their teachers’ selfless efforts, raised money through charitable events to clear the debts of 54 prisoners charged with committing crimes unintentionally.
“They also helped the families of 30 prisoners who were not set free,” said Mohammad-Reza Dehrooyeh, the school principal.
The boys-only Allameh Helli schools are located in several cities in Iran and administered under the National Organization for Development of Exceptional Talents, ISNA reported.
“It is the third consecutive year that students held charity events to raise funds for releasing prisoners who had committed inadvertent or unintentional crimes,” Dehrooyeh said.
This year our students raised nearly $6,700 for charity. In the last three years they helped clear the debts of 169 inmates.
According to head of the National Compensation Committee Asadollah Julaee, at present there are 9,900 people languishing in jail “for involuntary or unintentional crimes.”
One of the most common reasons for such crimes is ignoring the law; for example driving without a license. Also, illiteracy triggers offenses “as illiterate people do not understand written documents and they may sign them without reading the contents,” he said.
Given that such prisoners “are not really criminals or swindlers,” keeping them in prison can have adverse psychological impact. Their families also face severe financial problems. Therefore, people’s charity is crucial to help set them free.
Government funding has been provided for the release of more than half the prisoners, but more donations are needed, he said.
