OWN CORRESPONDENT, Algiers | Sunday 8.00pm.
ALGERIAN President Abdelaziz Bouteflika has pardoned thousands of imprisoned Islamic militants as part of a campaign for national reconciliation in Algeria.
The pardon, timed to coincide with Algeria’s independence day on Monday, is aimed at people convicted “on charges linked to terrorism and subversion, not implicated in blood crimes and rape and not having used explosives in public places,” the president’s office said in a communique on Sunday.
The statement did not say how many people would benefit from the pardon, but press estimates since June 26, when Bouteflika announced his intention to make the gesture, have ranged from 5000 to 15000.
In granting the pardon, the president “sought to affirm his personal determination to bring the process of reestablishing civil harmony to its conclusion,” the statement said. “By pardoning thousands of people, (Bouteflika) gives deep meaning to the clemency of the state,” the communique said.
Violence in Algeria’s civil war has claimed some 100000 lives since 1992, when the military stepped in to prevent a certain electoral victory by the now-banned Islamic Salvation Front (FIS).
Later on Sunday, Prime Minister Smail Hamdani is expected to present draft legislation to parliament designed to replace a 1995 clemency law. The new bill proposed by Bouteflika sets out conditions for the release or commutation of sentences for Islamist prisoners.–AFP