Zimbabwe pardons 2,000 inmates to ease jail congestion

Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe has pardoned more than 2,000 inmates, mostly women and juveniles, in a move aimed at decongesting the country's overcrowded prisons, state media reported Thursday.

Following the presidential pardon, nearly all female prisoners throughout the country were freed except two females serving life sentences that remained in prison.

The presidential pardon benefited all juveniles, all prisoners with life sentences convicted on or before December 25, 1995 and all prisoners sentenced to 36 months and below if they had served a quarter of their sentences.

All terminally ill inmates serving long sentences and those above 60 years who had served two thirds of their sentences were also freed.

Prisoners at Connemara Open Prison located some 200 km south west of Harare were freed as well as those convicted of stock theft.

Inmates convicted of murder, treason, rape, armed robbery, car-jacking, sexual offences or violence driven offences did not qualify for the presidential pardon.

Zimbabwe Prisons and Correctional Service public relations officer Priscilla Mthembo was quoted by the state-run Herald newspaper as saying that the presidential pardon, gazetted this week, would help decongest the country's overpopulated prisons.

"Our 46 prisons nationwide are overpopulated. We have a holding capacity of 17,000 but we have been holding over 19,900 prisoners," Mthembo was quoted as saying.

She said the presidential pardon will help improve living conditions for the remaining inmates.

Living conditions in Zimbabwe's prisons have deteriorated significantly in recent years due to lack of adequate financial resources.

In 2014, Mugabe pardoned 2,000 prisoners, mostly women and juveniles to ease congestion in the jails.

This was after more than 100 inmates died in prisons in 2013 due to nutrition-related illnesses induced by food shortages and natural causes.

In 2009, the International Committee of the Red Cross provided food, blankets and soap to avert massive hunger and disease outbreaks in the prisons.

The country's constitution allows the president to extend amnesty to prisoners whenever he wishes and Mugabe has regularly done this. Endite