Mnangagwa pardons 3,000 to relieve pressure in Zimbabwe’s over-crowded prisons
Harare — President Emmerson Mnangagwa, who was saved from the hangman’s noose as a teenager, has effectively commuted some death-row inmates’ sentences to life‚ as part of a presidential pardon of 3‚000 prisoners in over-crowded Zimbabwean prisons. In January, there were 99 death-row inmates in Zimbabwe‚ with one of them being a woman — Yvonne Musarurwa‚ an MDC-T activist jailed for killing a police officer in 2013 before that year’s general elections. As part of the clemency‚ all female inmates will be released and Musarurwa will be a beneficiary. "Commutation of the death sentence to life imprisonment is hereby granted to all prisoners who have been on death row for 10 years and above‚" he said. Zimbabwe last carried out an execution in 2005. Last year, former president Robert Mugabe revealed that his cabinet was divided on the issue. "We have different views on this matter, even in our cabinet, and even among the three of us: myself I want them killed while (then vice-president E...
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