Burundi president pardons 2 in 5 inmates to clear jails

BUJUMBURA, Burundi Mar 9 – Burundi is to free 5,255 prisoners as part of a presidential pardon aimed at emptying overcrowded jails, according to a decree seen by AFP on Monday.

The Burundian branch of the international NGO Action by Christians for the Abolition of Torture (ACAT) noted that this amounts to 40 percent of an estimated 13,200 prisoners.

The east African country’s prisons have a capacity of 4,100.

In the decree President Evariste Ndayishimiye says he is “convinced that an exceptional measure of clemency is needed to de-congest prisons and improve conditions of detention.”