Illegally convicted prisoners to be released on amnesty soon - Japarov

AKIPRESS.COM - The acting President has right to pardon convicts, acting President and Prime Minister Sadyr Japarov told a press conference today.
He said for 3 years in prison he helped around 100 convicts to be released from prison, since they were convicted unlawfully or for petty crimes.
"Some of them were uneducated. I sent petitions to the Ombudsman, Parliament, Prime Minister, President asking to pardon them. They say I was imprisoned unlawfully and there are thousands like me. If 5,000 are in prison, 2,000 of them are convicted unlawfully," Japarov said.
"All of them are children of ordinary people. There are no officials or children of officials among prisoners. If papers are ready, we will release them on amnesty. Those who were imprisoned unlawfully or for petty crimes will be pardoned," Japarov said.
He said billions are spent for maintenance of prisoners. "The damage is caused for the state from both sides: we spent public money for prisoners and on another side we part relatives. Around 2,000 applied for amnesty. A commission is considering those applications," Japarov said.