Guinea-Bissau's assistant attorney-general, Mamadou Balde, said on Monday that 59 of the 380 political detainees in the West African nation had been released, a humanitarian source told IRIN.
The source said 48 of those released were freed conditionally, and the Justice Ministry is to decide within eight days whether or not they will have to stand trial.
The detainees are mainly former supporters of deposed president Joao Bernardo Vieira. Balde denied that Attorney-General Amine Saad had deliberately dragged his feet on their release, as Prime Minister Francisco Fadul charged last week. Balde said the Justice Ministry had acted within the law, which allows pre-trial detentions of up to six months, the humanitarian source told IRIN.
This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions
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