Presidential amnesty applies to over 50,000 convicts, suspects

Prague, March 11 (CTK) - The Czech presidential amnesty declared by Vaclav Klaus on New Year's Day has applied to more than 50,000 convicts and suspects and further persons will still be amnestied, according to a report the Justice Ministry will submit to the government on Wednesday.

By February 28, the amnesty applied to 50,184 people, including 13,154 persons punished with prison sentences and 28,310 people punished with suspended sentences. The vast majority of the prison sentences were lower than 12 months and only several of them were higher than 24 months.

The number of inmates in prisons fell by 6442 after the amnesty and there are 16,121 prisoners in the country now, the report says.

Most of the amnestied prisoners were punished for theft (37 percent), obstructing the execution of an official decision (22 percent), neglect of compulsory care (21 percent) and fraud (4 percent).

The number of prisoners released within the amnesty will not markedly grow anymore, but the number of amnestied people on probation is yet to increase.

Under Klaus's amnesty, long-term criminal prosecution has been halted in 3120 cases.

The fact that the amnesty halts criminal proceedings in some high-profile corruption and financial fraud cases was widely criticised. The Senate has even challenged the amnesty's article halting long-lasting prosecution, but the Constitutional Court said an amnesty is not subject to court checks.

The amnesty applied to 3378 persons who received alternative punishments, or community work and home confinement.

The report says further 8825 alternative punishments may be forgiven.

According to the police, prisoners released thanks to the amnesty committed 316 crimes by March 1, mostly property crimes.

The extra costs the Prison Service paid in relation to the amnesty reached 4.4 million crowns.

The Prison Service is likely to save 180 million crowns this year thanks to the decreased number of prisoners, according to the report.

Some prisons complained of being overcrowded for some time before the amnesty.

($1=19.436 crowns)