HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) — Zimbabwe President Emmerson Mnangagwa granted clemency to more than 4,000 prisoners, including some who were on death row, in an independence day amnesty on Thursday.
Zimbabwe marked 44 years of independence from white minority rule, which ended in 1980 after a bloody bush war. The country’s name was changed from Rhodesia to Zimbabwe.
The presidential amnesty, the second in less than a year, benefits female, older and juvenile inmates, the terminally ill and some who were originally sentenced to death.
Those once on death row but who had their sentences commuted to life terms in previous clemency orders or through court appeals are to be freed provided they have been in prison for at least 20 years, according to the clemency order, which was announced Wednesday and due to take effect on Thursday.
All female prisoners who had served at least a third of their sentence by independence day are being freed, as are juvenile inmates who have served the same period.
Thailand urges Myanmar’s junta to free Aung San Suu Kyi — Radio Free Asia
No joke: UK comedian told to remove hot dog from subway poster over junk food ban
Masked gunmen shoot Myanmar Christian leader during church service — Radio Free Asia
Maker of defective sleep apnea devices ordered to overhaul manufacturing
Protesting Spanish professor 'warned university' over Confucius Institutes — Radio Free Asia
US measles cases are up in 2024. What's driving the increase?
More than six in 10 US abortions in 2023 were done by medication
Online posts erroneously tie Senate minority leader’s late sister
Mountain goat stuck under Kansas City bridge survives rocky rescue
Princess Amalia of The Netherlands, 20, who fled to Spain for a year after kidnap threats
Firefighters in New Jersey come to the rescue of a yellow Labrador stuck in a spare tire