Tajikistan's parliament has approved an amnesty that will lead to the release of thousands of convicts.
President Emomali Rahmon proposed the amnesty to mark the 20th anniversary of the adoption of Tajikistan's post-Soviet constitution on November 6, 1994.
Parliament passed a law on the amnesty on October 29.
Prosecutor-General Sherkhon Salimzoda, who presented the bill to the lawmakers, said that up to 10,000 convicts and suspects kept in pretrial detention would be released.
Inmates convicted of high treason, espionage, terrorism, rape, and murder will not be amnestied.
The amnesty law is the 16th to be passed in Tajikistan since it gained independence in the Soviet collapse of 1991.
Some 4,300 inmates were released in the most recent amnesty, in 2011.