DUSHANBE, November 4, 2009, Asia-Plus — President Emomali Rahmon signed the amnesty law yesterday, according to presidential press service.
The amnesty applies on a certain categories of prison inmates and citizens whose criminal cases are still under investigation and in courts.
This amnesty law is adopted on occasion of the 15th anniversary of Tajikistan’s Constitution, which is marked on November 6, and Year of Imam Azam in Tajikistan and more than 10,000 people are expected to be granted amnesty.
The new amnesty applies on female convicts, elderly, minors and sick prisoners, who are serving sentences for minor crimes, as well as veterans of the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945, participants in the cleanup operation at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant and foreign citizens. The amnesty excludes those serving sentences for serious crimes such as terrorism and extremism, killing two and more people, recidivists or those who committed crimes in prison.
We will recall that the last amnesty, which marked the 10th anniversary of the end of the civil war in Tajikistan, was announced in Tajikistan in June 2007 and 6,731 people were released under the amnesty announced in June 2007.
