Zimbabwe has started releasing about 3,000 prisoners under a presidential amnesty to ease congestion and thereby reduce the threat of COVID-19 in the country’s overcrowded jails.
According to reports, about 400 prisoners were released from Chikurubi prison and other jails in the capital, Harare, on Saturday with more coming from other prisons countrywide.
A former prisoner Kudakwashe Maoneka, said they were crowded in the cells despite the Covid scare with sometimes up to twenty-five persons in a single cell
Those to be released had been convicted of non-violent crimes while those convicted of crimes such as murder, treason, human trafficking, and sexual offenses will not benefit.
Also, all females imprisoned for non-violent crimes and who served a third of their sentences are to be released, as will all disabled persons convicted of non-violent crimes.
The commander for prisons in Harare said Alvord Gapare noted that the amnesty will go a long way to reduce expenditure and the threat of the spread of the virus in prisons.
Authorities have also suspended visits to prisons while plans are made to vaccinate inmates as part of measures to combat the spread of the virus, said Gapare.
Zimbabwe’s prisons have a capacity of 17,000 prisoners but held about 22,000 before the amnesty declared by President Emmerson Mnangagwa.
The country has also canceled the Independence Day celebrations planned for April 18 to combat the so-called spread of COVID-19.
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