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By Andualem Sisay - Capital
07 August, 2007
In the spirit of the ongoing national reconciliation on the approach of the Ethiopian third Millennium, the government of Ethiopia plans to pardon more than 13,000 prisoners, Capital learnt.
According to the information obtained from our sources, who requested to remain anonymous, administrators of various prisons along with local civic organization representatives have conducted discussions this week at the National Palace on the implementation of the pardon.
The pardon is believed to include prisoners who have displayed good conduct during their prison stay. The prisoners are expected to be freed upon the eve of the Ethiopian new third Millennium.
According to this year’s nine month report of the Federal Prison Houses presented to parliament, 3,642 prisoners were released on probation and parole and rejoined society, equipped with various vocational skills. In the nine months, 1,970 prisoners have also had voluntary HIV/AIDS testing after receiving awareness training about the epidemic, the report adds.
The number of prisons in the country is around 120. Most of these correctional centers have vocational training centers, from where prisoners will come out with various skills that make them productive when they rejoin society.
It is to be recalled that Capital recently featured a story on ex-convict Alemayehu Wuchamo who has now begun exporting clothes with the traditional cloth making skills he got in the two years he was in Sidama Zone prison in Awassa.