THERE was nothing unique or strange about the release of 28 men from Eastern Cape prisons after a pardon was granted by President Thabo Mbeki, the Justice Department said on Monday.
Justice department representative Paul Setsetse said the department from time to time received applications from prisoners to be pardoned.
”There is nothing unique about this. We release pardoned prisoners on a daily basis,” he said.
The only factor which made the release of these men unique, according to Setsetse, was that some of them had been refused amnesty by the Truth and Reconciliation Committee.
He said this could be due to many factors. It did not mean they could not prove that their crimes, mostly murders and robbery, were politically motivated.
”It can be that the TRC felt they had not made a full disclosure, for instance.”
Setsetse said the Justice Department took into account several factors, like the fact that these men had already spent a long time in prison, as well as the circumstances which led to their imprisonment.
”Some of them pleaded not guilty, but were still convicted. We also know that the legal system who dealt with these people in the past were facing difficulties… we know the problems associated with that system.”
He said other political parties had the right to apply to have their members in prison pardoned.
”It will have to be done on a individual basis. The Freedom Front and PAC want a collective amnesty for all their members and we have said before that we cannot do that. They must apply for each person separately.”
The 28 men, mostly African National Congress and Pan Africanist Congress members, were released from various prisons in the Eastern Cape on Sunday.
Setsetse was unable to give the exact length of the sentences the men had been serving. – Sapa