Robert Mugabe pardons 2,000 Zimbabwe prisoners

  FILE Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe speaks during a past rally. Drive Hot

HARARE

Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe has pardoned 2,000 prisoners, mostly women and juveniles in a move that should ease congestion in the country's jails, a government notice said.

The numbers of pardoned prisoners amounts to over 10 percent of the prison population, which stood at 18,460 last year against a holding capacity of 17,000.

Under the sweeping amnesty all females will go home, except those serving life terms, according to the clemency notice.

Mugabe also granted amnesty to prisoners aged 18 and under "irrespective of the offences they committed".

The pardon also extends to all terminally ill inmates, and those over 70 years-old.

Prisoners convicted of murder, treason, rape, carjacking, armed robbery, stock theft and those serving a sentence imposed by a court martial are excluded from the amnesty.

The country's constitution allows a president to extend amnesty to prisoners whenever he wishes.

CASH STRAPPED

More than 100 prisoners died last year in Zimbabwe's cash-strapped prisons, which have been hit by food shortages, according to a rights group citing prison statistics.

The Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights said prison officials had told a parliamentary committee that the prisoners died "owing to nutrition-related illnesses induced by food shortages and natural causes".

In 2009, the International Committee of the Red Cross had to step in with food, blankets and soap handouts to avert massive hunger and disease outbreaks.