Rwanda has pardoned more than 2,000 prisoners, including a top opposition figure Victoire Ingabire, who, has been serving a 15-year jail term for threatening state security and "belittling" the 1994 genocide.
She has been a leading critic of president Paul Kagame and says her trial was politically motivated.
Kagame won re-election for a third term last year with 98.8% of the vote, in an election observers said was a sham.
The release of Ingabire and 2,140 other convicts was announced by the government following a cabinet meeting.
No reason was given for the move, but a statement said that Kagame had exercised mercy under his prerogative as president.
Singer Kizito Mihigo was also freed, having been jailed for 10 years in 2015 for plotting to kill president Kagame.
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