Only 1 680 prisoners qualify for release under the
presidential amnesty out of the targeted 5 000 because the majority were
convicted of serious offences and have not yet served at least half their
sentences, the criteria for benefiting.
Only 53 women will benefit from the amnesty after it turned
out that women ruled the roost in the commission of specified offences like
murder, robbery, carjacking, sexual offences and public violence.
The Zimbabwe Prisons and Correctional Services (ZPCS) had
initially recommended the release of 5 000 prisoners in a bid to decongest the
country’s prisons to 16 838, but most of the inmates failed the test.
The first group of pardoned inmates is expected to be
released today.
President Mnangagwa recently issued a clemency order for
non-violent offenders.
Those eligible for immediate release, so long as they were
not found guilty of the specified offences that generally cover crimes of
violence, are: women prisoners who have served at least half their effective
sentence; juvenile prisoners who have served a third; those sentenced to 36
months or less who have served half; and those over 70 who have served half.
Offenders excluded from the amnesty include those convicted
of murder, treason, rape or any sexual offence, carjacking, robbery, stocktheft
and public violence, plus any conspiracy, incitement or attempt to commit these
crimes or being an accessory after the fact to these crimes.
Those who have not served at least half their sentences,
according to the latest clemency order, should be excluded.
Also excluded are prisoners who benefited from a previous
amnesty who were convicted again and jailed, those jailed by a court martial,
which would apply to certain offences by members of the defence forces, and
prisoners who have a record for escaping from lawful custody.
Secretary for Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Mrs
Virginia Mabiza yesterday said most prisoners targeted by the clemency order
failed to meet the minimum standards for release on amnesty.
“We had targeted the release of 5 000 prisoners, but most
of the inmates failed to meet the standards, resulting in a few qualifying,”
she said.
“In the past, we used to release those who had served at
least a third of their sentences, but this time we tried to balance the
interests and raised the bar to half sentences.”
Mrs Mabiza said only 53 out of 456 female prisoners
qualified for release because most of them were serving jail time for specified
offences.
“Many women are now participating in robberies, murder,
public violence and other serious offences, which disqualifies them from this
year’s amnesty,” she said. “We cannot just release all women when they are
committing serious offences.”
Prisoners who have spent at least 10 years on death row
will have their sentences commuted to life imprisonment.
President Mnangagwa used his constitutional powers of mercy
to effect the amnesty, desired to reduce the prison population to levels that
can be accommodated safely.
All the released prisoners and those with shorter effective
sentences still have criminal records and, if a portion of their original
sentence was suspended, those suspended sentences can be brought into effect
should they re-offend since the amnesty order only looks at remission of
effective sentences. Herald
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