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As many as 2,800 people reported to have been released under amnesty law

The press office of the Belarusian interior ministry reported on Thursday that as many as 2,800 people had been released from prison by December 3 under this year’s amnesty program.

According to the interior ministry, a total of 15,112 prisoners were eligible for amnesty under the amnesty law enacted in July on the occasion of Independence Day (July 3).

The press office said that applying the amnesty had already been considered with regard to a total of 14,593 convicts as of December 3, with 6,230 of them being denied amnesty.

A total of 5,562 people had their prison sentences reduced by one year.

Also eligible for amnesty were more than 7,500 people serving non-custodial sentences. The press office reported that as of November 1, 4,842 of them had been exempted from their sentences and 1,957 had had their sentences shortened by one year.

The amnesty law stipulates that no amnesty may be granted to people convicted on charges of, among other things, organizing and participating in mass disorder, organizing and preparing actions that are in gross violation of public order or active participation in them, defaming the head of state and violating regulations governing “mass events.” That means that Alyaksandr Lukashenka`s political opponents are unlikely to be freed under the law.

This has been the 10th amnesty campaign in the country since 1994. The previous amnesty campaign was conducted in 2010, on the occasion of the 65th anniversary of the Soviet Union’s victory over Nazi Germany in the 1941-45 Great Patriotic War. As many as 3,300 people were then released from correctional institutions and almost 9,000 people had their prison sentences reduced by one year, according to the interior ministry. The ministry says that up to 10 percent of the people released under an amnesty relapse into crime. //BelaPAN