Photo credit: NPR
Cuba’s government said on Thursday that it would release 51 people from prison in an unexpected move.
The Canadian Press reports that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the release in the upcoming days stems from a spirit of goodwill and close relations with the Vatican.
The government did not identify who it would release except to say that “all have served a significant part of their sentence and have maintained good conduct in prison.”
The announcement was made just hours before Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel was scheduled to speak early Friday in another rare meeting with the press “to address national and international issues.”
The government said it has granted pardons to 9,905 inmates since 2010. It added that in the past three years, another 10,000 people sentenced to imprisonment were released.
