Muscat: As many as 155 convicts serving prison sentences for various crimes received a royal pardon from Oman’s ruler Sultan Qaboos to mark the Eid Al Fitr holiday, the official Oman News Agency (ONA) announced on Tuesday.
They include 87 Omanis, whose crimes and length of prison terms were not disclosed. The rest are convicted expatriate residents and foreigners.
ONA said the royal gesture, coinciding with the advent of Eid Al Fitr 1413 AH, was in “consideration of the welfare of the families of the prisoners” in question.
Significantly, Tuesday’s act of clemency was the second such gesture in less than a month. On July 21, Qaboos ordered 219 prisoners to be granted their liberty to mark the Sultanate’s Renaissance Anniversary, commemorating the birth of a modern nation on July 23, 1970. Those set free included 139 Omanis.
