TEHRAN (Dispatches) -- Iran’s parliament passed a long-awaited amendment to its drug trafficking laws on Sunday, raising the thresholds that can trigger capital punishment.
The bill must still be approved by the Guardian Council but gained parliamentary approval after months of debate, according to parliament’s website and the ISNA news agency. The new law raises the amounts that can trigger the death penalty. The amendment will apply retroactively, thus commuting the sentences for many of the 5,300 inmates.