Home Minister assures amnesty for some prisoners

In the face of agitation by prisoners, Home Minister Krishna Prasad Sitaula has assured to provide amnesty to prisoners who have completed one-third of their sentences excepting those who are serving time on grave offenses.

Speaking at the special session of the parliament, Minister Sitaula said the government will abide by the recommendations made by the report presented by high-level committee on Prison Reforms. The committee was headed by MP Ram Bahadur Gurung.

Sitaula said the Home Ministry had written to all prisons to provide details of the prisoners. "After the details are received, this decision will be implemented gradually," he said.

He also added that since the existing Prison Rules state that only those inmates who have completed one-half of the sentence will be eligible for amnesty on the ground of good character, the government will need to amend it to provide amnesty – as per the Gurung committee's suggestion - to those who have served one-third of sentence.

Sitaula, however, added that amnesty will not be provided to those prisoners who are serving sentences on grave offenses such as drug trafficking, human trafficking, rape, wildlife poaching/trafficking etc. nepalnews.com sd Oct 30 07

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