The Rwandan Cabinet has approved the provisional release of 36 000 prisoners, including thousands suspected of taking part in Rwanda’s 1994 genocide, as part of efforts to reduce the strain on its prison system, officials said.
Rwandan prison authorities will start releasing the prisoners on Friday, Information Minister Laurent Nkusi said in a statement late on Wednesday.
Those eligible for release include genocide suspects who have made confessions but were not planners of the slaughter of more than 500 000 mainly minority Tutsis and political moderates from the Hutu majority, Nkusi said.
He said that among other prisoners who will be released are people who were minors when first imprisoned, those aged over 70 years and sick prisoners, Nkusi said.
Also included in the 36 000 prisoners to be released are those who have served the equivalent of a maximum sentence for their alleged crimes even though their cases in court have not concluded.
Their release is provisional and depends on the outcome of their cases, Nkusi said. Some released prisoners could be returned to jail.
This is the third provisional release of prisoners by Rwandan authorities since President Paul Kagame ordered in 2003 that such releases be made from time to time to decongest Rwanda’s prisons.
After releasing in 2003 about 25 000 detainees who confessed to perpetrating crimes during the genocide, Rwandan re-arrested more than 5 500 of them when they were presented with evidence of other crimes to which they had not confessed. — Sapa-AP