DUSHANBE. Aug 19 (Interfax) - The lower house of the Tajik parliament on Friday unanimously passed an amnesty bill that will affect some 15,000 people, suspects awaiting trial as well as convicts.
Tajik President Emomali Rahmon tabled the bill to parliament at the end of July. The amnesty is timed with the 20th anniversary of Tajikistan's independence that will be marked on September 9.
"The bill will affect about 15,000 people, including about 4,000 convicts who will be released from confinement," Prosecutor General Sherhon Salimzoda told parliament presenting the bill.
"The bill will affect all convicts, except those sentenced to life. If a convict is not released, his or her prison term will be reduced," Hamadali Vatanov, a member of the parliamentary law and order committee, said.
The amnesty will result in the release from custody of all minors, men over 55, disabled of the first, second and third categories, cancer and TB patients, veterans of the Afghan war, persons involved in mitigating the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, deserters, and foreigners.
For the first time, the amnesty will apply to participants in the 1997 mutinies in the cities of Dushanbe and Tursunzade, and in Khatlon region, as well as participants in the 1998 armed raid in Sogdi district who have served three quarters of their sentences.
The mutinies in 1997-1998 were organized by Col. Mahmud Khudoiberdyev who had been a supporter of Rahmon's Popular Front, but later joined the opposition during the 1992-1997 civil war.
In 1998, Khudoiberdyev's supporters captured the second biggest city in Tajikistan, Khujand, in the most noticeable act of violence after the civil war.
The previous amnesty was declared in November 2009 on the 15th anniversary of the adoption of the Tajik constitution and affected some 10,000 people. The upcoming amnesty will be the 13th since the declaration of independence.