Photo: khovar.tj
Tajik President Emomali Rahmon has signed a decree pardoning 897 prisoners, according to the presidential press service.
The decree states that the amnesty was granted in honor of the international holiday of Navruz, based on the principle of humanitarianism and in accordance with Article 69 of the Tajik Constitution.
As reported by the Khovar news agency, on March 21, 200 prisoners were released from correctional facilities, including 147 men and 53 women, among them 27 minors.
The following day, an additional 697 inmates were freed under the presidential decree, comprising 663 men and 34 women. According to media reports, those released had been held in general and high-security prisons, a juvenile detention center, a women's prison in Nurek, and pretrial detention centers in Dushanbe, Khujand, and Bokhtar.
State media highlighted that since Tajikistan’s independence, 102,671 people have been granted amnesty through presidential decrees, with 58,233 individuals fully released from serving their sentences.
According to Asia-Plus, the last time Rahmon issued a mass pardon was on October 30, 2020, shortly after securing reelection. That decree included a list of 378 individuals.
However, as in 2020, no details have been publicly disclosed regarding the specific crimes for which the pardoned individuals were convicted.
Rahmon is not the only Central Asian leader to issue such decrees. On March 20, Turkmen President Serdar Berdymukhamedov granted clemency to 321 prisoners in honor of the upcoming Night of Power (Laylat al-Qadr). Similar pardons are regularly issued in Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, often ahead of national or religious holidays.
