Vietnam set to free several thousand prisoners
HANOI,- Vietnam has indicated that as many as 8,000 prisoners could be granted amnesties this year, a state official said on Saturday.
``The figures may be more or less (than 8,000),'' the official from the President's Office told Reuters, adding that the number of inmates to be released had yet to be
finalised.
Vietnam President Tran Duc Luong signed a decision on
June 6 to establish criteria for amnesties that would come
into effect on the country's September 2 national day,
which marks the day Ho Chi Minh declared independence
soon after Japan's World War Two surrender in 1945.
Luong's decision said amnesty would be granted to model
prisoners who posed no threat to political security and
social order; and who had served at least one-third of
their prison terms or 12 years of a life sentence.
Others would qualify for release or shortening of
sentences for reasons that included ill-health, extreme age
or previous good service to the revolution.
In recent years Hanoi has regularly granted amnesties
that normally coincide with national holidays.
The official English-language daily Vietnam News
reported on Saturday that the Central Amnesty
Consultation Council had until July 30 to submit lists of
names, and that the president would approve the final list
by August 15.
It was not known whether any prisoners convicted of
security or political offences were likely to be freed.
Prison conditions in the communist country were harsh
and the government did not permit independent monitoring
of its prison and detention system, the U.S. Department of
State said in its annual 1997 report on human rights,
released in January.
Hanoi has said repeatedly that it does not hold political
prisoners, but international human rights groups and some
Western governments have said the country is currently
detaining people for peaceful expression of religious or
political beliefs.
Reuters - July 25, 1998.
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