KATHMANDU, OCTOBER 4

The government has decided to bring into force the provision of parole as provisioned in Section 17 (f), 29 and 49 of The Criminal Offences (Sentencing and Execution) Act, 2017. The parole provision will come into force on October 18.

Minister of Communications and Information Technology Rekha Sharma said at a press briefing here today that a decision to this effect was taken by the Cabinet on Tuesday and it would be published in Nepal gazette.

The Council of Ministers also decided to designate the concerned prison administrators as parole officers from October 18 till the time parole officers are appointed.

As per Section 29 of The Criminal Offences (Sentencing and Execution) Act, 2017, the District Court judge may, on recommendation of the concerned District Probation and Parole Board, order to place on parole an offender who, upon being sentenced to imprisonment for more than one year, has served two-thirds of the sentence and has shown good conduct.

However, an offender who has been sentenced to life imprisonment or who has been sentenced for the offence of corruption or rape or human trafficking and transportation or organised crime or money laundering shall not be released on parole. One who has been sentenced for an offence related to torture or cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment or crime against humanity or crime against the state shall also not be released on parole.

Those released on parole shall be subject to compliance with the specified terms and conditions, under the supervision of the parole officer and if they fail to comply with the conditions or commit any offence punishable by imprisonment during that period, they must serve/spend the remaining period of imprisonment imposed on them in prison.

The government had not implemented parole related provisions as Section 1 (2) of the Act stipulated that the government could appoint a date for enforcement of provisions related to parole, community service and provisions that allow authorities to send offenders to reform home or rehabilitation centre and service of imprisonment in prison on the weekends or during the night only. This Act also has provisioned open prison, but the government is yet to enforce this provision.

Spokesperson for the Department of Prison Kamal Prasad Pandey said his office had prepared a list of those who may benefit from parole provisions.

There are 1,600 out of 27,950 prisoners who could be released on parole. Pandey said the parole provisions were aimed at reintegrating prisoners who have already served two-thirds of their jail term, into society. Those convicted in narcotic drugs offences will also benefit from parole provision as this offence is not in the negative list.

Pandey said the government needed to make directives to enforce other new penal provisions such as open jail and community service. He said the government had a plan to first start open jail in Banke where prisoners will be allowed to work in industries or farms during day time and will return to jail during night.