Iran and Venezuela on Wednesday signed a bilateral agreement in Tehran to boost cooperation in judicial affairs, reported the official Iranian news agency (IRNA).
The agreement was signed between Iran's Judiciary Chief Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi and his Venezuelan counterpart Ivan Rinken Ourdanta.
According to the agreement, the to nations are to cooperate in a range of matters, including judicial management, the use of the technology in the judicial cases, running prisons and fighting crimes, said IRNA.
Shahroudi said that currently, about 60-70 percent of the prisoners in Iran's prisons are detained on charges of drug-related offenses.
He said about 2,000 tons of opium were smuggled from Afghanistan into Iran annually.
He said Iran had embarked on an initiative to replace the opium poppy with other crops in Afghanistan, the agency quoted him as saying.
For his part, Qurdanta termed as positive the results of his Tehran visit and said he had gained a good knowledge of Iran's judiciary – Albawaba.com
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