Sarkozy refuses pardon for inmates

FRENCH president, Nicolas Sarkozy, disappointed thousands of prisoners yesterday by refusing to sanction a traditional Bastille Day pardon.

Mr Sarkozy’s two predecessors, Jacques Chirac and Francois Mitterrand, regularly ordered the mass release of prisoners to co-incide with the July 14 national holiday, using the pardon as a way of relieving heavy overcrowding in France’s jails.

Last July alone Mr Chirac freed a total of 3,500 inmates, and legal groups were hoping the newly installed Mr Sarkozy would follow suit this month to take some of the pressure off the prison network.