Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni commuted death sentences...

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni commuted death sentences of 16 condemned prisoners by reducing the sentences of 12 of them to life imprisonment and freeing four others. According to a news release issued in Kampala the president also pardoned 522 prisoners convicted of various offences. The release, issued by the Commissioner of Prisons, Joseph Etima, mentioned two prisoners, Abudala Nabulele and Petero Ntasonyerwa, to be among the beneficiaries of the pardon. The two were condemned to death for murder in 1978 and 1982, respectively. No explanation was provided for the pardon, which came nearly two weeks after Ugandans endorsed Museveni's "no party" political system in a referendum 29 June. Others who escaped the hangman's noose were 14 prisoners who were given death sentences for acts of aggravated robbery committed between 1983 and 1995. The inmates pardoned included the terminally sick and expecting or breastfeeding mothers who were not convicted on capital offences. The majority of those pardoned, 409, were prisoners who had served at least three-quarters of their sentences.