ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq - Iraq’s Supreme Judicial Council said more than 19,000 people have been released from prisons and detention centers and almost 12 billion Iraqi dinars recovered under the amended general amnesty law.

The amnesty law redefines the concept of affiliation to terrorism, seeking to ease the burden on the Iraqi judicial system and exonerate those wrongly imprisoned. 

In a statement on Tuesday, the Council said that a total of 93,597 people were covered by the law, which was passed earlier this year. That number includes prisoners, detainees, people convicted in absentia, and others with arrest or summons warrants.

The announcement came after a meeting chaired by Supreme Judicial Council President Faiq Zaidan. The meeting included deputy presidents of the Federal Court of Cassation, the head of the Public Prosecution, and the chief of the Judicial Oversight Authority.

The officials reviewed a report showing that from Jan. 21 to April 30, 19,381 people had been released under the law across all provinces.

Zaidan also called for a larger meeting with legal committees to resolve problems and different interpretations of the law.

The Council said the government recovered over 11.9 billion Iraqi dinars, around $625,000, 770 million Syrian pounds, and 76,100 Saudi riyals as part of the amnesty law's enforcement.

The amnesty bill was passed with an agreement between Sunni and Shiite lawmakers in return for passing the Shiites’ highly-demanded amendments to the Personal Status Law. Many Sunnis believe that following the years of war since 2003 and after the so-called Islamic State rule, their community was among the most affected by unjust mass arrests and terrorism charge allegations, given that many of the insurgencies would originate from Sunni majority areas in the country.