Moscow - Russian lawmakers on Friday backed a mass prisoner amnesty proposed by President Vladimir Putin that could free thousands ahead of next month's World War II victory anniversary.
The Duma lower house of parliament approved the amnesty bill -- submitted by Putin as a humanitarian gesture to mark the 70-year commemoration of Soviet victory over Nazi troops on May 9 -- in a unanimous vote.
"We think that 60,000 people would be affected by the amnesty and walk out of prison," said senior ruling party lawmaker Pavel Krasheninnikov, after presenting the bill.
Putin's bill covers those convicted or jailed for minor crimes and who are war veterans, single parents of minors, convicts who have certain illnesses or disabilities, and first-time offenders.
However the bill has a long list of exclusions and prisoner rights activists say only a handful of people would actually walk free.
"It's not an amnesty, it makes a mockery of common sense and of the convicts," said Olga Romanova, who heads Sitting Rus, an organisation that campaigns for prisoners' rights.
She said it was "cynical" that the amnesty does not include those who are sole providers for their parents who are elderly war veterans and Nazi prison camp victims.
"It's simply cruel," she said.
AFP
