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Over 1 300
prisoners freed under amnesty
By Sifelani Tsiko
A total of 1 314 prisoners have so far been released
from the country’s 42 prisons under an amnesty which was granted by the
Government last week.
The spokesman for the Zimbabwe Prison Service,
Superintendent Frankie Meki, said yesterday that the figure was made up
of 1 165 males and 149 females. "The process is rigorous and we have
to make sure a prisoner is vetted thoroughly before being released,"
he said. This, he said, was being done to avoid releasing inmates who can
later become a menace to society.
Out of the total figure, 539 were from Mashonaland,
244 Manicaland, 80 Midlands and Masvingo and 451 from the Matabeleland
region.
Nearly 5 000 prisoners are set to benefit from the amnesty
as the Government battles to reduce overcrowding in prisons.
Others will be released in phases after thorough
screening.
Mr Meki said the three remaining South African
saboteurs who were arrested in 1988 for attacking an African National
Congress house near Bulawayo will not be released as they do not qualify
under the terms of the amnesty. "Because of the nature of their
crimes they do not qualify for amnesty," he said.
The trio, together with Barry Bawden who has since
been released after finishing serving his jail term, were sentenced to
death by the High Court in November 1988 for murder and sabotage.
But this was later commuted to life imprisonment
after they languished under the shadow of death for five years.
Last June, the Minister of Justice, Legal and
Parliamentary Affairs, Cde Patrick Chinamasa, said the trio, still being
held at Chikurubi Maximum Prison, would not be pardoned despite having
received petitions from them.
Prisoners who qualified for amnesty fall into
several categories.
The categories include prisoners aged 60 and above
serving determinate sentences and those serving life sentences who were
jailed on or before April 18 1982.
Women prisoners convicted of infanticide, abortion,
baby dumping and concealment of birth on or before April 18 2002 are
covered under the amnesty.
Others are women serving a determinate sentence with
unweaned children and prisoners sentenced to 24 months and under.
Prisoners sentenced on or before April 18 2001 to 24
months were also granted full remission of the remaining period of their
sentences. Zimbabwe’s prisons are overcrowded and existing structures
have the capacity to hold a maximum of 16 000 prisoners.
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