President Boris Yeltsin urged the parliament Wednesday to approve an amnesty for more than 400,000 prisoners to ease overcrowding in Russia’s disease-ridden prisons.
The amnesty would “ease a situation that has grown very tense in places of imprisonment” and bring conditions “in line with universally recognized standards,” Yeltsin said in his message, quoted by the ITAR-Tass news agency.
Yeltsin’s draft legislation, sent to the lower house of parliament, would apply to those convicted or charged with less serious crimes.
Military veterans, mothers, pregnant women, invalids, minors, the elderly and people with tuberculosis would be given preference.
The ITAR-Tass report said 445,000 inmates would be released or see their sentences reduced. The total number of inmates was not specified, but previous reports put it at more than 1.2 million.
