Release of pardoned inmates in Burundi reaches satisfactory step: official

Over 90 percent of inmates detained in Burundian prisons and who benefited from the presidential pardon at the beginning of this year have already been released, a senior Burundian justice ministry official said Saturday.

"2,264 pardoned inmates have already been released and have joined their families. A list of the 2,500 beneficiaries of the presidential pardon has been forwarded to the Home Affairs Ministry so that the local administration authorities closely follow up the security situation of those pardoned inmates," Lea Pascasie Nzigamasabo, chairlady of the permanent commission in charge of monitoring detainees' cases said.

According to her, the newly created commission that she chairs will also closely follow up inmates' detention conditions so that their situation can improve.

On January 23, Burundian Justice Minister Aimee Laurentine Kanyana launched the operation to release 2,500 inmates, including political prisoners, following a presidential pardon announced by Burundian President Pierre Nkurunziza in his 2017 New Year message to the nation.

The launch of the operation took place at Mpimba prison in the East African country's capital Bujumbura where some 600 inmates enjoyed the presidential pardon.

Kanyana indicated that 58 people from the opposition Movement for Solidarity and Democracy have been pardoned, adding that the pardon also targets insurgents who participated in the protests against the candidature of Nkurunziza in April 2015.

The presidential pardon targets inmates whose jail sentences were less than five years or who had already spent three fourths of their jail terms or have behaved well behind bars. Endit