Minor offenders freed to relieve prison overcrowding

By Martin Hellicar

NINETY-THREE minor offenders are getting a Presidential pardon in an effort to relieve chronic overcrowding problems at Nicosia’s central prison.

“They will be released in stages. Twenty-three have been let out already and the rest will be free by the end of the month,” acting prison chief Theodoros Petasis said yesterday.

The 93 have the acting President of the Republic, Disy leader Nicos Anastassiades, to thank for their freedom.

“The main reason for the pardons is overcrowding, we currently have 295 inmates in the prison,” Petasis said.

The prison was built to hold 120 inmates and could “manage” with up to 200, Petasis said.

But the current situation is impossible, he said, with cells designed for one convict sometimes holding four or five.

Two more wings are currently under construction at the prison, an open prison and a fifth high-security wing. The prison governor said that with the new wings the prison would be able to hold 300 prisoners. But he added that he did not know when construction would be complete. “That is up to the public works department,” he said.

There are an unspecified number of foreigners among the 93 to be let out. They will all be deported after release.

Petasis said none of the 93 had committed serious crimes and all of them would in any case have served their sentences by the end of November.

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