DUSHANBE, January 31, Asia-Plus - At present some 100 teenagers aged 14 to 18 are serving their sentences in a minors’ penal colony located in Dushanbe, deputy head of the penal system directorate of the Ministry of Justice (MoJ), Bahrom Abdulhaqov, said in an interview with Asia-Plus.  

Abdulhaqov noted that secondary school and technical-vocational school operate at the minors’ penal colony in Dushanbe.  “Teenagers attending the technical-vocational school are studying various disciplines,” the MoJ official said.    

According to Abdulhaqov, 21 minors have been released under Tajikistan’s amnesty law.   

 According to the MoJ, 6,680 have been amnestied in Tajikistan since the amnesty law was adopted.  A part of them was released, while others were granted partial amnesty, in which the prisoner’s sentence is reduced. 

Some 12,000 prisoners had served their sentences in penal colonies in Tajikistan until August 17, 2006 when the amnesty low was adopted on occasion of the 15 ^th anniversary of Tajikistan’s Independence.  The amnesty will last through February 17, according to Abdulhaqov.    

We will recall that the amnesty applies to veterans of the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945 and elderly, young and sick prisoners who are serving sentences for minor crimes. The amnesty does not apply to persons serving sentences for serious crime or for killing two and more people, recidivists or those who committed crimes in prisons.