Sixty-eight prisoners walked out of Central Prisons on Wednesday morning after President Nikos Christodoulides granted them a pardon to mark the August 15 holiday.
Twenty-seven are Cypriots and 41 are foreign nationals, according to philenews information. Arrest procedures have already been set in motion for some of the foreign nationals under an order from the Deputy Ministry of Migration, with a view to moving them to the detention centre at Menoyia for deportation.
No one convicted of drug trafficking or sexual offences was included, and nor was anyone who has not served half their sentence.
The Attorney General drew up the list with the prison administration, covering people due for release over the coming months. Christodoulides signed it once it was approved.
The releases ease a permanent overcrowding problem. The prison currently holds more than 1,100 inmates in space for up to 800, with the wings full and prisoners sleeping stacked together.
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