Algeria to pardon thousands
2006-03-02 12:44
Algiers - Algeria will pardon or reduce sentences for up to 3 000 convicted or suspected terrorists under a national reconciliation plan approved by referendum last September, say reports on Thursday.
The reports, cited the justice ministry said that under the plan, about 1 000 people convicted on terror-related charges were eligible for presidential pardons, and legal action would be stopped against another 1 200 detained terror suspects.
According to reports, the measures applied only to those who were accused of supporting or financing terrorism, since the reconciliation charter excluded pardons for those convicted of organising, carrying out or complicity in massacres, bomb attacks and rapes.
Nevertheless, it said that about 800 such people could have their sentences commuted or reduced.
According to reports, justice ministry official Abelkader Sahraoui, said: "A death penalty could be reduced to life imprisonment."
- AP