QURGHON TEPPA, November 19, 2009, Asia-Plus — 983 prisoners, including 738 men, 244 women and one minor, have been released from penal colonies and pretrial detention facilities in the Khatlon province under the amnesty law by this day, Yusufkhon Huseinov, an official with the Khatlon prosecutor’s office, told Asia-Plus today.
According to him, letters have been sent to relevant bodies in places of residence of the amnestied people requiring them to provide the amnestied people with jobs.
As it had been reported earlier, President Emomali Rahmon in early October signed a decree that grants amnesty to an estimated 10,000 prisoners. The amnesty pardons mainly convicts who were under 18 years when they committed their crimes, men and women over 55, and foreign nationals. According to presidential press service, a special commission is reviewing all the cases to decide which prisoners will be granted an amnesty.
We will recall that in a report released at news conference in Dushanbe, Zafar Azizov, the deputy head of the Supreme Court of Tajikistan, revealed on November 13 that of 10,000 prisoners that will be granted amnesty, only 3,000 well be released, while others will be granted a partial amnesty, i.e. their prison terms will be reduced.
