Svobodna Dnevnik

[Hadash]

El Correo Internacional

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New Galasian government pardons member of the Goldecian royal family
By: Asia Galianus
Published: Ochtyr 18, 1582


Lord Eustace Jones and Princess Elaina during a travel in Goldecia, 1576

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Lord Eustace Jones, a member of the Goldecian royal family, has been pardoned and deported back to the Kvaennan country, after a decree announced by the Council of National Unity. Jones, 36, is married with Princess Elaina, the second daughter of late King Neberen, King of New Galasia from 1565 to his death, in 1579.

Jones, along his wife, another three minor members of the New Galasian royal family, and sixteen New Galasian politicians and army officials had been sentenced to jail for the charges of high treason, conspiration against the government, organized crime, and collusion with foreign intelligence, in a highly controversial trial which lasted more than two years. Jones, who unlike most of the other suspects had admitted guilty to the military court, was sentenced to 20 years of jail, while his wife Princess Elaina was sentenced to 12 years. They were accused of being involved in a conspiracy which would have led to the murder of Regent Ambrosius on Elva 1580, the same day that a group of military officers took power in the Near East country and proclaimed the military-led Council of National Unity as the highest authority in the country, suspending the constitution and the Alsace parliament. However, many New Galasian political parties and human rights organization denounced many flaws in the court process, including allegations of torture and legal restrictions to lawyers.

Jones was pardoned and, merely an hour after his release from a military prison in southwestern New Galasia, immediately deported back to Goldecia, arrieving to Rutterdam airport at 2 a.m. As the pardon was only partial, that means that the two children of the couple, Princes Brutus Arcturus and Cynrus Benedict (5 and 2 years old, respectively) will remain under state custody, as consequence of a law passed on Septem 1581, in which citizens condemned for treason and similar changes would have the custody of their children retired permanently.

Princess Elaina, 34, remains in prison, but the New Galasian media has published rumours that she could be pardoned and released in the coming weeks as well, and at least serve part of her sentence in house arrest.

A speaker of the Council of National Unity justified the decision to pardon Lord Jones, "not in terms of interference with a judiciary decision...but in order to safeguard the interests of the nation in the most proportional and pragmatical way". It is not clear how much this would improve the diplomatic standing of the Near East nations, as many foreign government rejected to recognize the government established by the Council of National Unity.

Prime Minister Perceval Oberonus defined the pardon as "maybe not an act of justice, but one of mercifulness and diplomacy".

Since late 1579, New Galasia is immersed in a bloodthirsty civil war, affecting the eastern side of the country.