Malawi leader pardons 230 prisoners: Mutharika says ‘symbol of forgiveness’

Malawi President Peter Mutharika has pardoned 230 prisoners from the country’s overcrowded jails under an amnesty to mark Christmas and New Year, the home affairs ministry said on Wednesday.

”The pardon of the 230 prisoners is a symbol of forgiveness during the Christmas and New Year Celebrations,”  it said in a statement.

The pardoned prisoners had served at least half of their sentences and had behaved well during their incarceration, or had not convicted of serious offences.

Mutharika has been granting clemency to prisoners during independence celebrations and alast year’s Christmas.

Malawi’s 34 prisons, home to about 12,000 inmates, are battling severe overcrowding, which many blame on courts ordering jail sentences for minor offences.