Some 800 inmates were freed in Tajikistan on November 3, the first releases under a mass amnesty approved by the parliament last week.
Officials have said the as many as 10,000 imprisoned convicts and suspects in pretrial detention could be freed under the law passed by parliament on October 29.
President Emomali Rahmon proposed the amnesty to mark the 20th anniversary of the adoption of Tajikistan's post-Soviet constitution on November 6, 1994.
Tajik Justice Ministry officials told RFE/RL that 175 inmates of a women's penal colony in Nurak were among those released on November 3.
Some 500 inmates were released from a prison in Yavan, outside Dushanbe, and some 60 were freed from a juvenile prison in the capital itself.
The ministry said 57 suspects were released from pretrial detention center in Dushanbe.
