President Abdelaziz Bouteflika has pardoned thousands of imprisoned Islamic militants as part of a campaign for national reconciliation in Algeria.
The pardon, timed to coincide with Algeria's independence day today, is aimed at people convicted "on charges linked to terrorism and subversion, not implicated in blood crimes and rape and not having used explosives in public places," the president's office said yesterday.
A statement did not say how many people would benefit from the pardon, but press estimates since June 26th, when Mr Bouteflika announced his intention to make the gesture, have ranged from 5,000 to 15,000.
In granting the pardon, the president "sought to affirm his personal determination to bring the process of reestablishing civil harmony to its conclusion," the statement said.
"By pardoning thousands of people, [Mr Bouteflika] gives deep meaning to the clemency of the state," the communique said.
"The fight against terrorism is not limited to the fight against terrorist activity but is greater and must go towards reestablishing ties between citizens by eliminating the causes of all real or potential sources of frustration," the statement said.
Violence in the civil war has claimed some 100,000 lives since 1992, when the military stepped in to prevent certain electoral victory by the now-banned Islamic Salvation Front (FIS).
Later yesterday, the Prime Minister, Mr Smail Hamdani, was expected to present draft legislation to parliament designed to replace a 1995 clemency law. The bill proposed by Mr Bouteflika sets out conditions for the release or commutation of sentences for Islamist prisoners.
Like yesterday's presidential pardon, the bill is aimed not at those guilty of "blood crimes or rape" but at people who had provided shelter or funds to armed extremists.
The bill is the apparent result of an agreement, so far kept secret, between the regular army and the Islamic Salvation Army (AIS), the armed wing of the FIS, which had observed a unilateral truce since October 1997.
Clemency may be sought under the proposed law within six months from its promulgation. Militants will be required to declare weapons in their possession and describe their role in the civil war.
Those incarcerated who have not been implicated in "blood crimes" will be conditionally released under the law.
Mr Bouteflika has also mentioned unspecified "other measures" in his campaign to bring about national reconciliation.
The press speculated that these might include the lifting of a state of emergency in effect since February 1992, the release of the FIS leader, Abassi Madani, from house arrest and an investigation into thousands of missing people whose relatives say were abducted by the security forces.