2000 Coup leader George Speight has been released from prison today among five other inmates, which includes November 2000 mutiny leader, Shane Stevens.

This has been confirmed by the Fiji Corrections Service stating that Speight and others have been granted Presidential Pardons.

It says the Mercy Commission during its meeting yesterday reviewed the petition for mercy by Speight, Stevens, Sekina Vosavakatini, Nioni Tagici, Adi Liviana Radininausori, John Miller, and James Sanjesh Goundar.

However, in the case of James Sanjesh Goundar, the pardon came too late as he unfortunately passed away earlier this month.

Following the Commission’s deliberations, recommendations for mercy were made, and the President of Fiji, acting under Section 119(5) of the Constitution, granted pardons to all the petitioners.

Speight led a group of armed men in May 19, 2000 and took the government hostage.

He was later arrested and charged with treason and was imprisoned awaiting trial.

He pleaded guilty for treason on February 2002 and was since sentenced to death. The sentence was commuted to life imprisonment the same day by President Ratu Josefa Iloilo.

The 2000 coup leader was initially imprisoned on Nukulau Island before he was transferred to the Naboro Maximum Security Prison in 2006.

Stevens was found guilty of the mutiny at the Queen Elizabeth Barracks in November 2000, where several soldiers, both rebels and loyalists lost their lives.