Zimbabwe frees 3,000 prisoners in massive prison decongestion exercise
President Emmerson Mnangagwa of Zimbabwe yesterday
pardoned 3,000 prisoners as part of government efforts to decongest
prisons and improve living conditions of inmates.
Those who benefited from the amnesty, announced by the Zimbabwe
Prisons and Correctional Services (ZPCS) include all female prisoners
except those sentenced to death or facing life sentences, all juveniles
and all people jailed for less than 36 months.
Disabled inmates, the terminally ill and those above 60 years who had
served one third of their sentences were also pardoned. The pardon does
not apply to habitual criminals previously pardoned but jailed again
and those convicted of murder, treason, rape and armed robbery.
Zimbabwe’s prisons are battling overcrowding as they are currently holding 20,000 inmates against a carrying capacity of 17,000.
“As the ZPCS we applaud the move taken by His Excellency (President
Mnangagwa) in exercising his prerogative of mercy to some prisoners
behind bats,’’ ZPCS deputy commissioner general Alford Mashango Dube said.
This is Mnangagwa’s first amnesty for prisoners since he assumed
power last November. The last pardon that set free thousands of
prisoners was done by former president Robert Mugabe in 2016 as prisons were struggling to feed the inmates.
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