Africa-Press – Mozambique. 751 prison inmates have benefitted from the pardon announced by President Daniel Chapo, which took effect on Monday.
This is rather less than the figure of 771 announced by Chapo last week. All were sentenced for minor offences.
Justice Minister Mateus Saize told reporters on Monday that the government’s original plan was to pardon 1,200 prisoners. But when a check was made, it was found that some names on the list were of inmates who had already been granted provisional freedom, some had died while others had taken part in mass escapes from prisons during the post-election unrest in the early months of the year. Even if the latter group had been recaptured, they were no longer eligible for pardons.
Saize thought that releasing 751 inmates was significant in reducing overcrowding in the prisons, and relaxing the pressure on the prison budget.
Only 22 of those pardoned had been sentenced for offences related to the post-election rioting. Civil society organisations have protested that all those arrested during the violence should be released, since the arrests were arbitrary,
Saize replied that such decision had to be taken by courts and not by members of the government.
