{"id":120485,"date":"2021-04-28T10:01:20","date_gmt":"2021-04-28T02:01:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=120485"},"modified":"2021-04-28T10:01:22","modified_gmt":"2021-04-28T02:01:22","slug":"burundi-begins-releasing-prisoners-in-bid-to-stop-overcrowding","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=120485","title":{"rendered":"Burundi begins releasing prisoners in bid to stop overcrowding"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignwide\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ghanaweb.com\/GhanaHomePage\/africa\/Burundi-begins-releasing-prisoners-in-bid-to-stop-overcrowding-1243861?gallery=1\"><img src=\"https:\/\/cdn.ghanaweb.com\/imagelib\/pics\/332\/33205513.295.jpg\" alt=\"1,300 prisoners in Burundi freed\"\/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p style=\"text-align:center\"><strong><em>1,300 prisoners in Burundi freed<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>BUJUMBURA, April 28 (NNN-AGENCIES) &#8212; Burundi freed 1,300 prisoners on Monday at the beginning of a presidential pardon, which aims to free up overcrowded jails.<br><br>At a prison in Bujumbura, almost 1,000 inmates left their cells at a ceremony attended by President Evariste Ndayishimiye.<br><br>A total of 5,255 inmates, 40 percent of Burundi&#8217;s prison population, will be released in the coming weeks. 3,000 will be imminently released and another 2,000 will have their sentences cut.<br><br>\u201cIn our country, what has crippled us is a lot of crimes, offenses committed that the state has not sanctioned so that some people have thought that committing a crime is a sign of bravery,&#8221; said Ndayishimiye, warning detainees against a relapse.<br><br>&#8220;The blood crimes of the past have their roots there when people see that killing is not a crime.&#8221;<br><br>The detainees, including those arrested in 2015 following the demonstrations against the third term of the late President Nkurunziza, say they are relieved.<br><br>They also thanked Ndayishimiye and hope that others will have the same chance.<br><br>&#8220;I feel happy because this is the first time that a president has come to free the prisoners himself,&#8221; said former prisoner Kabura Muhamed who was one of the beneficiaries.<br><br>&#8220;Even in our families, they have already had this good news. It\u2019s joy. God bless him for this act. I was imprisoned in 2016 for political motives.&#8221; &#8212; NNN-AGENCIES<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>1,300 prisoners in Burundi freed BUJUMBURA, April 28 (NNN-AGENCIES) &#8212; Burundi freed 1,300 prisoners on Monday at the beginning of a presidential pardon, which aims to free up overcrowded jails. At a prison in Bujumbura, almost 1,000 inmates left their cells at a ceremony attended by President Evariste Ndayishimiye. A total of 5,255 inmates, 40 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":120486,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[213],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120485"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=120485"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120485\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/120486"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=120485"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=120485"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=120485"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}