Mnangagwa pardons 3,000 prisoners

Zimbabwe’s new president Emmerson Mnangagwa has pardoned up to 3,000 prisoners, including most female inmates, in his first act of clemency, a government notice showed on Wednesday.

The Zimbabwe Prisons and Correctional Services (ZPCS) said the pardon would decongest Zimbabwe’s prisons which have around 20,000 inmates but a holding capacity of only 17,000.

The pardon will benefit all female prisoners except those sentenced to death or facing life sentences, all juveniles and all people jailed for less than 36 months.

It will not be extended to those released during previous amnesties but jailed again, or to those convicted of murder, treason, rape and armed robbery.