Rwanda’s judicial authorities have released a second batch of 1,673 detainees from different police stations cells countrywide to decongest detention centres amid COVID-19, a judicial source confirmed Tuesday to APA in Kigali.
This latest batch of detainees is the largest since the move was announced earlier in April.
According to the country’s Prosecutor General, Aimable Havugiyaremye, the detainees released are in two categories including those who are legible to pay a fine and be freed without necessarily being produced in court, and suspects who can be released on a conditional basis among others.
This release comes after the judiciary sector in Rwanda becomes adversely affected by lockdown measures over the global coronavirus pandemic.
Following the new lockdown directive, suspects cannot be produced before courts so that they can either be remanded in prison facilities or granted bail, it said.
The total number of coronavirus patients in Rwanda has reached 207, following 16 new confirmed cases in the last 24 hours as of Monday, according to the ministry of Health.
CU/as/APA