More than 4,000 prisoners released from prisons in Zimbabwe
Photo: Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi / AP / NTB
Zimbabwe has started freeing more than 4,000 prisoners granted a presidential amnesty, which it says will ensure prisons are not overcrowded.
According to a spokeswoman for the Zimbabwe prison authority Meya Khanyezi, the amnesty will increase the capacity of prisons in the country.
Zimbabwe’s prisons actually have a maximum capacity of 17,000 inmates, but currently hold more than 20,000 inmates.
On Friday, around 800 prisoners were released from the Central and Chikurubi prisons in the capital Harare. Jails in other parts of the country began releasing prisoners eligible for amnesty on Thursday, according to Khanyezi.
Among other things, all female employees who have been imprisoned for non-violent crimes and have served one-third of their sentence should be released. There are also prisoners who suffer from incurable diseases, regardless of the crimes they have committed. Blind convicts and those with physical disabilities who could not be treated in prisons, in turn, had their sentences waived.
Prisoners have long complained about overcrowding and harsh conditions in prisons in Zimbabwe, where there is a shortage of food and proper healthcare. Human rights organization Amnesty International has previously described conditions in prison as deplorable.
Zimbabwe has several times in the past used presidential amnesties as a way to free prisons.
(© NTB)
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