Uruguay frees prisoners

Press, 12 March 1985, Page 10

Uruguay frees prisoners

NZPA-AP Montevideo Uruguay’s new civilian Government freed 193 political prisoners yesterday, most of whom spent more than a decade in military jails, to the shouts and tears of thousands of supporters and relatives. The releases, announced by a Supreme Court spokesman, were part of an amnesty approved Friday by Congress and immediately promulgated by the President, Dr Julio Sanguinetti. Another 63 prisoners, convicted of assassinations or other violent terrorist acts, remained in jail pending a speedy review of their

cases. The Chief Justice, Rafael Addiego, said that all would be freed by Friday. At the male military penitentiary in Libertad, 80km north of Montevideo, 173 prisoners were released. Broadcasts from the scene showed the inmates, toting their possessions in small bags, running more than a kilometre to the place where several hundreds of relatives were kept waiting. The relatives, many of them holding up fists in salute, shouted “Uruguay, Uruguay,” and embraced the freed men, who looked

in good health. A long caravan of cars, buses, and trucks carried the former prisoners back towards Montevideo, where thousands of people had gathered in the streets to celebrate the occasion. At the women’s military prison, in the capital, a crowd of about 3000 people greeted the 20 women who were released. Most of the prisoners were members of the Tupamaros, a Leftist terrorist group active in the late 1960 s and early 19705. They were captured in a military operation that crushed the movement in the early 19705.