E. Germany Sets Amnesty, Abolishes Death Penalty

East Germany on Friday announced a general amnesty for thousands of political and other prisoners and abolished the death penalty, the state-run ADN news agency reported.

The Communist government thus became the first in the Soviet Bloc to abolish capital punishment.

ADN said the amnesty was proclaimed to mark the 38th anniversary of the founding of East Germany.

The amnesty excludes people convicted of war crimes, espionage and murder, ADN said. Figures were not immediately available on the number of people to be released, but it is believed to include about 2,000 political prisoners.

ADN said release of prisoners will begin Oct. 12 and end Dec. 12. Prisoners serving life sentences will have their terms commuted to 15 years, ADN said.

East German courts have not sentenced anybody to death for several years, it said.

The news agency said the state council, led by Communist Party chief and President Erich Honecker, approved the amnesty and the abolition of the death penalty.

The amnesty order covers all sentences passed before Oct. 7 and drops all current investigations. It includes fines and suspended sentences, ADN said.

“The amnesty demonstrates the existence of socialist humanism that covers also those people who have broken the law, and gives them a chance to assume a resonsible role in the society,” ADN said.

The West German government says it has the names of 1,025 political prisoners, but Western sources say the figure is believed to be about 2,000.

Political prisoners in East Germany include people who tried to escape or leave the country, opposed Communist authorities and avoided the military draft.

It was not clear if the released political prisoners would be allowed to leave the country.

ADN said the number of offenses has been falling in East Germany, giving it “one of the lowest crime rates in the world.”

The general amnesty was East Germany’s third. An amnesty in 1972 released 25,351 people and one in 1979 freed 21,928.

According to official West German figures, about 140,000 people have been convicted of political crimes in East Germany since 1950.