HAVANA TIMES – The Cuban government announced today the pardoning of 787 prisoners in response to the international call of Pope Francis for the Holy Year of Mercy.
“The Council of State of the Republic of Cuba, in response to the call of Pope Francis to the heads of State in the Holy Year of Mercy, agreed to pardon 787 inmates,” said the text published on the cover of the official newspaper “Granma” .
Among the released are women, young and sick prisoners. The government says it took into account the characteristics of the crimes for which they were punished and “the conduct during the fulfillment of the sanction and time already served,” said the text .
The Cuban authorities excluded from the list prisoners sentenced “for crimes of murder, homicide, corruption of minors, rape, drug trafficking and other extremely dangerous penalties.”
The last such pardon took place in September 2015 on the occasion of Pope Francis’s visit to Cuba. On that occasion 3,522 prisoners benefited.
The Pope was in Cuba again in February of this year, when, on his trip to Mexico, he made a stopover in Havana to meet with the Patriarch of Moscow.
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