Nearly all the prisoners at the Corradino prison facilities benefited from the presidential pardon granted on the recommendation of former home affairs minister Manuel Mallia when Labour was elected to power in 2013.

Information provided to Parliament shows that a total of 606 prison inmates, from a population at the time of 614, had their sentences reduced following former president George Abela’s pardon.

The figure was provided by Minister Carmelo Abela – who succeeded Dr Mallia after the latter was fired last year – in reply to a parliamentary question by PN spokesman Carmelo Mifsud Bonnici.

The pardon – 100 days for each prisoner, with some exceptions – resulted in a total of 164 prison years being shaved off the inmates’ sentences.

The only cases which were excluded from the amnesty were prisoners with convictions of rape or the abuse, kidnap or abandonment of minors.

However, sentences connected to drug trafficking, murder, pornography or violence against the elderly benefited from the amnesty in full.

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