The Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC), Zimbabwe’s biggest opposition coalition, has claimed that among the more than 4,000 criminals released under presidential amnesty last week include Child rapists.
President Emmerson Mnangagwa pardoned the prisoners drawn from the country’s 47 prisons in an attempt to decongest overcrowded jails.
Prison authorities had said rape was among offences excluded from the amnesty.
The CCC in a statement said it was grossly irrational to release dangerous, unrehabilitated offenders back into society before informing or preparing rape victims.
In a democratic society, it is never rationally justifiable to release an unrehabilitated rapist who has not served his sentence back into the community unchecked and without protections to protect victims, according to CCC spokeswoman Fadzayi Mahere.
The Zimbabwean authorities are yet to comment on the allegations.
