President Gnassingbe Eyadema of Togo

In 2002, President Gnassinbe Eyadema of Togo ordered the release of 5000 prisoners.

174 of the prisoners were from Lomé Civil Prisons, 82 from Kara in the North and 62 from Aneho in the South.

Although a cross-section of Togolese citizens insisted that most of those freed were political detainees, the government stressed that they were common law offenders.

President Eyadema took over the reign of power in a coup in 1967.