NYUSI PARDONS 1,000 PRISONERS

Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi announced on Wednesday that he is exercising his constitutional prerogative to pardon prisoners who are old, sick, or have already served half, or almost half, of their sentences.

Nyusi made this announcement at the end of his State of the Nation address to the country’s parliament, the Assembly of the Republic.He said he was acting “in the spirit of clemency, humanism and compassion, and out of conviction in the results of the work of our institutions in regenerating and rehabilitating prisoners”.Nyusi said the pardon is for prisoners suffering from serious or terminal illnesses, elderly prisoners, and others who have served half, or nearly half, of their sentences “and show that they are rehabilitated and ready to return to society”.He said the pardon covers around 1,000 prisoners, who will now be able to spend Christmas with their families “in full harmony, freedom and at peace, in the expectation that they will never return to that situation (of imprisonment)”.The pardon takes effect as of 24 December. So in the next eight days, the prison services, the courts and the Ministries of Justice and of Health will have to decide which prisoners qualify for the presidential pardon.