Chakwera pardons 175 inmates
State President Lazarus Chakwera has exercised his powers as president of the Republic of Malawi, to pardon 175 inmates from various prisons across the country as Malawians celebrate 58 years of independence.
This is a common practice by a sitting Malawian president who has powers to pardon some prisoners especially those that have served a better part of their sentence and their offences were less threatening. Such prisoners are pardoned during independence celebrations and sometimes during Christmas celebrations.
Minister of Information, Gospel Kazako, confirmed the recent pardoning of 175 inmates to the local media.
“As Malawi is rising, as Malawi is celebrating 58 years of self rule, the president has pardoned 175 prisoners. These are prisoners who are very old, others sickly such that they could possibly fail to finish their sentences and those that have demonstrated the spirit of being reformed.
“I should also point out that these prisoners are those that had cases of less magnitude because there are other big cases whose perpetrators cannot be found on the pardon list,” explained Kazako.
Kazako then asked Malawians to think positively and work positively towards the development of the country.
As of December, 2020, Malawi had a total prison population of 14,500 including pre-trial detainees who are also called remand prisoners, against an official capacity of 7,000 prisoners in all the prisons in the country.
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