\nKigali, 4 December 2007 (FH) - The Rwandan government will try, during December, to relieve congestion its over-crowded prisons, especially for persons accused of having played a part in the 1994 genocide, reports Tuesday an official source.\n<\/p>\n
"That is within the framework of the general policy of the country aiming to have relieved prisons", explained to the Hirondelle agency the Rwandan Minister of Justice, Tharcisse Karugarama. <\/p>\n
The authorities will use, for that purpose, Work of General Interest (WGI), an alternative sentence to imprisonment, and parole, according to the minister. <\/p>\n
In addition, will be released, persons who are very sick, vulnerable, said Karugarama; hoping that "the figures will considerably decrease". <\/p>\n
He also announced that the Rwandan criminal code is in the process of a revision and that "one of the principal innovations consists of supporting alternative sentences to imprisonment". <\/p>\n
"The new bill, which counts around 600 articles, was passed last week" by the Chamber of Deputies and "the project was sent to the concerned commission (parliamentary)", added Karugarama. <\/p>\n
After examination in committee, this bill proposed by the Council of Ministers, will then be debated in plenary by the Chamber of Deputies before being sent to the Senate. <\/p>\n
According to local human rights organizations, Rwandan prisons hold, at the end of May, around 90 000 prisoners, compared to 60 000 at the beginning of last year. <\/p>\n
This increase is due to the judgments rendered by the gacaca courts charged with trying the majority of the alleged authors of the 1994 genocide. <\/p>\n
Inspired by Rwandan tradition, the gacacas (pronounced gatchatcha), semi-traditional courts, are presided by non-professional magistrates, appointed among the community on the basis of the only criterion of integrity. <\/p>\n
ER\/PB\/MM
\n© Hirondelle News Agency<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Kigali, 4 December 2007 (FH) - The Rwandan government will try, during December, to relieve congestion its over-crowded prisons, especially for persons accused of having played a part in the 1994 genocide, reports Tuesday an official source.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[555],"tags":[],"ji_location":[],"class_list":["post-19526","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hirondellenews"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n