More than 400 prisoners have been released in Malawi as a gesture of goodwill for Christmas by President Bingu wa Mutharika, officials announced on Tuesday.
"The president has ordered the release of 439 prisoners as part of this year's Christmas celebrations," Tobias Nowa, a spokesman of the Malawi Prisons service, told AFP.
The prisoners, 15 of whom were "chronically ill and too sick to stay behind bars" were those who have served at least half of their prison sentences with good behaviour and were not convicted of serious offences, Nowa added.
Those released account for four percent of the total number of inmates which stands at 10,800 in the country's 23 prisons.
Nowa said the freed inmates will help ease congestion at prisons, which have a capacity of 4,500.
Mutharika in July released 495 prisoners as part of independence celebrations.
The president, who came to power following the former British colony's third multiparty elections in 2004, often frees prisoners being held for minor offences during independence, Christmas and Easter festivities.
Tuesday, 25 December 2007
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