BAHRAIN’S king pardoned 457 prisoners on Wednesday night to mark his 25th anniversary as the island nation’s ruler, with one activist saying many of those freed appeared to be political prisoners.

The announcement by the Bahrain News Agency marks another mass release of prisoners in a country that has experienced repeated crackdowns on all dissent.

There was no list of names of the prisoners released by the order of King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa, who has ruled Bahrain first as its emir since 1999 before Bahrain became a kingdom in 2002.