more than 1,000 prisoners released for Christmas

Prisons in Sri Lanka are notoriously overcrowded. On the occasion of Christmas, 1,004 prisoners benefited from a presidential pardon, a prison administration official announced on Monday, December 25. Among them are detainees imprisoned for unpaid fines, this official said, Gamini Dissanayake.

Sri Lanka has around 30,000 prisoners, in infrastructures designed for 11,000 people, according to official figures as of Friday.

The authorities of this country, populated mainly by Buddhists, had already announced a collective amnesty in May, this time on the occasion of Vesak Day, marking the birth, state of enlightenment and death of Buddha. Nearly 1,000 detainees were then pardoned, according to The Morning website.