Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Fahd bin Abdul-Aziz ordered the release of 5,000 Saudi and expatriate prisoners jailed for minor offences, the Director of Jails said in remarks published by Okaz newspaper yesterday.
“A committee is currently assessing who should be released, and work will be completed within two months,” Maj. Gen. Ali Al-Harithy told the paper. Prisoners charged for minor offences such as drinking alcohol, quarrelling, involvement in traffic accidents and thefts that did not create indebtedness to others will be released, Al-Harithy said.
Al-Harithy estimated that approximately 5,000 prisoners throughout the Kingdom would benefit from the pardon, which was proposed by Interior Minister Prince Naif bin Abdul-Aziz.
King Fahd pardoned 13,768 Saudis and expatriates in the year 2001. And several thousand prisoners are released every year on the occasion of the holy month of Ramadan.
Source: SPA
