ANKARA, April 14 (Xinhua) -- Turkish parliament on Tuesday ratified an amendment for the release of nearly 90,000 prisoners, aiming to ease the overcrowding in prisons amid the COVID-19 outbreak.

The bill, which was prepared by the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and Nationalist Movement Party, reduced the sentences of the prisoners and paved the way for their early release.

There are nearly 300,000 prisoners currently in Turkey's prisons.

Around 45,000 people will benefit from the temporary and permanent amendments on the law, while the figure will increase to 90,000, as some will be put to house arrest from open prisons due to the pandemic.

In Turkey, open prisons offer a more relaxed environment for convicts and focus more on rehabilitation of convicts who are allowed to take up employment inside the prison.

The amendment is submitted for the approval of the president and will take effect after it is published in the official gazette.

Initially, some 75,000 convicts in open prisons will leave for their homes and be considered on parole until May 31. After that, if the outbreak continues, the justice minister will be able to extend the period three times by a maximum of two months each.

Sex crimes, drug crimes, first-degree murder, violence against women and terrorist crimes were excluded from the amendment.

The law also allows the convicts who completed half of his or her sentence to be released conditionally. The execution time, except for eight types of crimes, has decreased with the amendment.

The convicts who were sentenced over charges, except terrorism, mafia, espionage and anti-state security crimes, and displayed "good behavior" will be transferred to the open prisons immediately.

The decision will also pave the way for the transfer to house arrest of some prisoners over the age of 65, pregnant female inmates and prisoners with health problems.

"Enforcement is a difficult area to regulate. In this sense, offenses that hurt the public's conscience, such as sexual assault offenses, narcotic crimes, murder in the first degree, crimes against women and terrorism offenses have been left out of the scope," Deputy Chair of AKP, Cahit Ozkan, said ahead of the ratification.

On Monday, Turkish Justice Minister Abdulhamit Gul said 17 cases of the novel coronavirus have been confirmed in five open prisons, while three prisoners died from the virus.

The main opposition Republican People's Party lawmaker Engin Ozkoc said the party will apply to the Constitutional Court for the annulment because the amendment violates the basic principles of the constitution as the new law excludes journalists and civil society activists from the content of the law. Enditem

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