More than 100 prisoners in Cambodia receive royal pardons for Water Festival

More than 100 prisoners in Cambodia have received royal pardons and hundreds more have seen their sentences reduced under King Norodom Sihamoni's traditional Water Festival clemency, a local English newspaper reported Wednesday.

"Some 106 prisoners have been pardoned while 576 have received sentence reductions of six to 12 months under a royal decree issued Friday," the Phnom Penh Post quoted Ministry of Justice spokesman Chin Malin as saying.

Be Tealeng, director of operations at the Ministry of Interior's General Department of Prisons, said the 106 inmates who received pardons were freed on Monday evening.

Most of the inmates included were imprisoned for crimes relating to "drugs, theft and robbery, and a very small number were involved in murders", he said.

Under the kingdom's law, prisoners qualified for pardons have to have served two-thirds of their jail terms, while those eligible for a sentence reduction must have served one-thirds.

The Southeast Asian country usually pardons prisoners on the occasions of Khmer New Year, Visak Bochea's Day, King's birthday and Water Festival.

This year, the Water Festival holiday is celebrated from Nov. 24 to 26, but there are no boat races along the river in front of the Royal Palace in Phnom Penh due to low water levels. Enditem