Uzbek Prison Amnesty Frees More than 3,000

Uzbekistan has released more than 3,000 prisoners under an amnesty granted to nearly 70,000 people, the prosecutor-general of Central Asia's most populous state said on Tuesday.

The annual pardon applied to 69,497 people, the prosecutor-general's office said in a statement.

Of these, 43,082 had their criminal convictions and sentences overturned, including 3,237 people who were released from prisons and detention centres, it said.

The remainder were individuals still awaiting trial.

The amnesty is announced each December to mark the anniversary of the ex-Soviet country's 1992 constitution, and usually applies to women, convicts younger than 18 and older than 60, and foreign citizens.

Uzbekistan, a secular majority Muslim nation of 30 million, has never revealed the total number of its prison population. 

Last year the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) stopped visiting Uzbek detainees, saying that it was unable to follow its standard working procedures.