TEHRAN Iran's Judiciary Head Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi said here Wednesday that about 300 different offenses carry statutory punishments in Iran which, he observed, are not essentially consistent with the spirit of Sharia-based laws.

He said the Islamic penal system relies less on imprisonment and more on other forms of punishment, and intimated that the principle would have to be heeded both for conformity with Islam and on account of crowded prisons in the country.

Shahroudi who was addressing a group of MPs after their fact-finding visits to a number of prisons in Iran reminded that all legislation by Majlis had to be undertaken with a macro-vision of the true needs of the society or else, he said, rather than complement each other the three branches of the government and government agencies would systematically mutually ruin their good acts.

He said the Expediency Council had adopted 22 considerations for reforming the legal system in Iran which, he said, had in part paved the way for reforming the legal and penal system in the country.

Incarceration is the least frequent form of punishment in Islam and it would obviously cost the system a lot less, with foreseeably better results, if the recommended forms of Sharia punishments were to be dealt out for offenses which are still routinely punished by imprisonment in Iran. The change to that system, however, would need revision of the present penal code of the state.

Last month, Majlis adopted, subject to the endorsement of the Guardian Council, a bill which defines "political offenses" in Iran.

With political charges facing a slew of reformist politicians, journalists and newspapers, the reform-majority legislature passed the bill to spell out what will constitutes political offense in the eyes of the law.

The specifics will be hammered out in a second reading of the bill next week after MPs also moved to make the measure a priority on the legislative agenda. The bill was presented by the Interior Ministry.

Shahroudi also commented that the Judiciary and the Executive arm of the legal system in the country is now in dire need of jurisconsults and professionals as well as better budget.

Earlier on, a total of 170 prisons in different parts of the country were earmarked for closure in a bid to transfer their prisoners to higher standard prisons.

There are reportedly nearly 157,000 prisoners in Iran, two-thirds of whom have been convicted on drug-related charges.

Last month, Shahroudi discountenanced torture of prisoners for any reason, as well as solitary confinement and denying inmates visits by their families or relatives. He said violation of those principles would be punishable by law.

The warning came after jailed dissident journalist Akbar Ganji claimed in the court last month that he had been tortured by prison guards before having been taken to the court at Tehran's Evin Prison.

Penitentiary officials, however, denied Ganji's claim saying "the allegations by Akbar Ganji are sheer lies and intended as blackmail."

(IRNA)