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UK to exonerate, compensate wrongly convicted Post Office staff

It follows renewed focus on scandal stretching back 2 decades, which saw hundreds of subpostmasters wrongly convicted of theft

By AFP
January 11, 2024
A general view of the exterior of the Village Shop and Post Office in South Warnborough near Odiham, on January 10, 2024. — AFP
A general view of the exterior of the Village Shop and Post Office in South Warnborough near Odiham, on January 10, 2024. — AFP

LONDON: The UK government announced Wednesday it will unilaterally quash the wrongful theft convictions of hundreds of self-employed Post Office branch managers targeted due to faulty software, and offer them immediate compensation.

Announcing the highly unusual decision to pass legislation exonerating and compensating the subpostmasters, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said he wanted to help right “one of the greatest miscarriages of justice in our nation’s history”.

It follows renewed focus on a scandal stretching back two decades, which saw hundreds of subpostmasters wrongly convicted of theft because of the glitch in Fujitsu’s then-new “Horizon” accounting software.