New Czech Leader Orders Amnesty for Up to 30,000

Newly installed President Vaclav Havel, a playwright who spent five years in jail as a dissident, announced a nationwide amnesty Monday that could cover up to 30,000 prisoners.

In an announcement read on television, he said he will free all prisoners facing or serving sentences of up to two years for crimes committed deliberately, and also prisoners with terms of three years for crimes committed out of negligence. Those with longer sentences would have up to half remitted.

The amnesty does not cover people charged with abuse of public position, including former Communist officials, and with a number of criminal offenses such as murder, armed robbery and rape.

Petr Uhl, a member of a government committee set up to investigate prison conditions, estimated that about 40,000 people are imprisoned in Czechoslovakia. He said that up to three-quarters of them apparently would be eligible for amnesty.

Dozens of political prisoners have already been released under an amnesty granted by former President Gustav Husak. He acted last year after huge pro-democracy protests and the fall of Communist hard-liners.

Havel, who took office last week, was jailed for his dissident activities by the former government.

In a New Year’s message before the amnesty announcement, Havel pledged to lift his country from a mire of political hypocrisy.

“The worst thing is that we live in a contaminated moral environment . . . because we became used to saying something different from what we thought,” Havel declared. He called on Czechoslovakia to rediscover its self-confidence and help Europe restore the concept of morality in politics.