New Mexican Government Releases 16 Political Prisoners - Minister

MEXICO CITY (Sputnik) - Mexican Interior Minister Olga Sanchez Cordero announced on Tuesday the release of 16 prisoners whose sentences are viewed as politically motivated by the country's new government.

"A total of 368 cases are currently being reviewed, we have already released 16 people, many of whom even did not have a sentence passed after long years of imprisonment because judges were not able to sentence them due to the absence of reasons for that", Sanchez Cordero said at a daily press conference of Mexico's new President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who assumed his office in December.

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According to the Mexican interior minister, many of the unlawful detentions related to protests against fracking and rallies against the educational reform of the former administration which has already been abolished by the government of Lopez Obrador.

The Mexican interior minister also revealed the government's intention to avoid the criminalization of social protests in the country.