MANAMA: Bahrain has pardoned hundreds of inmates, the second major amnesty in months, as the Gulf state moves to ease lingering tensions from its crushing of Arab Spring pro-democracy protests.

Scores of prisoners were released from a notorious Bahrain jail on Thursday following a royal pardon issued on Wednesday concerning 457 inmates, according to activists. They included dissidents detained following a crackdown on Shia-led protests from 2011, the Britain-based Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy said.

Published in Dawn, September 6th, 2024