Cuba Gov. to Release 2,900 Prisoners

HAVANA TIMES, Dec. 23 — More than 2,900 prisoners will be released in the coming days, announced the Cuban government on Friday.

The Council of State said it was ordering the releases for humanitarian and sovereign reasons that took into account good conduct, age, illness and the percentage of the sentence completed.

Those excluded from consideration were convicted of serious crimes including espionage, terrorism, murder, drug trafficking, rape, corruption of minors and violent robbery.

The announced went on to say that some convicts of crimes against state security would also be released for having completed the majority of their sentence and having maintained good behavior

The move comes less than a year after the government released the last of a list of over a hundred political prisoners after mediation that included the Catholic Church and the Foreign Ministry of Spain.