Fifteen British marines and sailors who were pardoned by Irans President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Wednesday, will go home on Thursday, it was announced in Tehran Wednesday evening.

The Britons violated Iranian territorial waters in the Persian Gulf on March 23 and were captured by the Iranian coast guards ever since.

President Ahmadinejad announced during a news conference in Tehran Wednesday that all the 15 Britons would be released to show the Islamic kindness of the Iranian nation and as a gift to the British people on the occasion of the Prophet Mohammads birthday and Easter.

The Britons will leave Tehran for London from Mehrabad international airport.

President Ahmadinejad said that the captured Britons had all confessed to trespassing in Iranian waters and that Iran had every right to put them on trial, but had decided not to. I want to give them as a present to the British people, to see that they are free, New York Times quoted him as saying.

Afterward, he greeted the captives one by one and shook their hands.

The Iranian president said the decision to release the captured sailors and marines was not part of a swap for Iranian prisoners held by the United States in Iraq.

We approached the subject on a humanitarian basis, he said. It was a unilateral decision on our end.

He also said the British government sent a letter to the Iranian foreign ministry that said that this will not happen again.... Of course, this decision was not related to that letter. When we think of Islamic kindness, we are not expecting anything in return.

In London, the British government said it welcomed the Iranian presidents remarks, but that no logistics had yet been worked out for the captured sailors release, the report added.

We are now establishing exactly what that means in terms of the method and timing of their release, a Downing Street spokeswoman said.
During the news conference, the Iranian president called on the British Prime Minister Tony Blair not put the captive sailors and marines on trial for admitting in the videotaped statements that they had trespassed on Iranian waters.

Other countries must recognize that Iran will protect its right and its land and as it did in the past it will in the future, President Ahmadinejad said.