Faced with overcrowded prisons, Albanian authorities look to grant early release to certain groups of offenders
TIRANA, March 27 – President Bujar Nishani issued Tuesday a decree on an amnesty that grants early release to about 1,000 inmates from the country’s overcrowded prison system.
The amnesty was seen as a need by the government earlier this year as an effort to open some room in prisons that are currently holding far more prisoners than they were designed for.
The law was voted with a consensual agreement of the government and the opposition. Opposition lawmakers, however, were not present when it was approved.
All prisoners who had less than three years remaining in their sentences by Nov. 30, 2013 will be released.
There will be about three dozen women and men over 60 who were also given special treatment in the amnesty, but it excluded those sentenced to grave crimes. Teenage convicts will also benefit.
The law says that all prisoners or those waiting trial on grave crime charges or behavior that is considered a social threat will not benefit from the amnesty.
Most notably, Nazmie Visha, the young woman who killed a man who had allegedly been abusing her since she was a child, did not benefit from the amnesty, despite a group of high profile Albanians, including two top writers, Ismail Kadare and Dritero Agolli, lobbying on her behalf.
