President Zourabichvili declares moratorium on her pardon power

Recent decisions of the President of Georgia Salome Zourabichvili to pardon convicted murderers have become a subject of controversy, members of both the ruling team and the opposition have harshly criticized the president for using her pardon power to get murderers out of jail before serving their time.

Zourabichvili has decided to put a moratorium on pardoning before the parliament drafts changes to the pardon power.

“I also suggested that the rules on pardon be revised earlier. My view was that a parliamentary working group should do this. We consulted with Parliament's Speaker on this. Since January, we have been drafting new rules and my version will be handed over to the Parliament’s Speaker. Next week this working group will hold a meeting, where all parties will come together and formulate ideal guidelines so that the public will no longer be worried,” Zourabichvili said during a press conference on Wednesday.

The Human Rights Education and Monitoring Center (EMC), a local NGO has responded to the President’s decision, stating that they fully share the public's concern that the President dismissed the Pardon Commission and takes such decisions individually. Additionally, NGO thinks that the moratorium hurts those inmates, for whom the pardon is the last hope to achieve justice.

“It is essential to set up as quickly as possible a Pardon Commission, staffed with individuals with strong public trust, and a transparent decision-making process on granting pardons. After the President's use of discretionary power to grant pardons without any substance has led to public criticism, the imposition of a moratorium on this power is detrimental to those inmates in penitentiary facilities whose last chance to restore justice is pardon,” states EMC.

According to EMC, they obtained information from the President’s office, stating that in the last 9 months, a total of 4468 people requested a pardon, out of which the President granted only 91. In all cases, the decision was made individually by the President, bypassing the Pardon Commission.

The Public Defender of Georgia called on the President to ensure maximum transparency and public involvement in the exercise of the pardoning authority.

“The Public Defender of Georgia explains that the discretionary nature of the pardon does not imply the right to use it without any justification. Pardoning should aim at the achievement of a specific task, whether state, political, judicial or specific individual circumstances. In each case, the use of such an excerpt must be as perceptible and as understandable as possible to the public,” says the Ombudsman.

PM Giorgi Gakharia has also responded to the President’s decision, stating that committers of such serious crimes shouldn’t be pardoned.

“Pardoning is the president’s discretionary power, however for me, it is unacceptable to pardon a convicted murderer of a policeman, or any murderer and perpetrator of such serious crimes. Of course, legislative changes are also needed here, as evidenced by the step taken by the president - a moratorium. There has to be a discussion with the Parliament, and of course, some filters have to be put in place, so that people convicted of serious crimes, especially murderers, are not pardoned in this way,” said the PM.

The leader of the opposition European Georgia Gigi Ugulava harshly criticized Zourabichvili in a Facebook post.

“[Zourabichvili] said that she is completely incapable and asked for her absolute power to be restricted. On the contrary, pardoning should be absolutely discretionary, but it’s in the hands of an absolute idiot. The law shouldn’t be changed, but Zourabichvili should be expelled from the palace,” wrote Ugulava.

On August 28, the Georgian president pardoned 35 people, including those convicted of murdering a police officer Tarash Mukbaniani in 2014 and one convicted of killing Davit Otkhmezuri in 2004. These decisions resulted in outrage of the society. The president initially explained that she acted within the discretionary powers, but later expressed a desire to reconsider the pardon procedure.