President discusses new pardoning rules with Speaker of Parliament and Minister of Justice

By Natalia Kochiashvili

Friday, November 1

Irma Nadirashvili: “The statements we heard from the Parliamentary Tribune about how badly the President and her administration were doing, require reinforcement by actions – it needs the support of the parliamentary majority.” Photo: RFE/RL

The President of Georgia Salome Zourabichvili met with the Speaker of the Parliament of Georgia Archil Talakvadze and the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Justice Tea Tsulukiani to elaborate the new pardoning rules.

After the meeting, the president said, that the rules of pardon were drafted in the administration and the document was forwarded to the parliament for appropriate recommendations.

“There is no difficulty, and I hope that the editing of the decree in my administration will be completed very soon, in line with the principles that we just agreed upon and which are entirely acceptable to me in order for the new Presidential Decree to be issued promptly,” - the President noted after the meeting.

According to the statement of the Speaker of the Parliament, he presented his views to the President of Georgia, who applied to the Parliament for consultation on the pardon procedure.

“We believe that the decision to pardon must take into account the nature of the crime and social risk,” said Talakvadze after the meeting and later wrote a post on social network regarding the recommendations that were given to the president.

The nature of the committed crime should be taken into account; Social risk; Whether the crime is committed against the child; Against woman; Or vulnerable groups; Whether the crime was committed with exceptional cruelty; Cases where the offender has a degree of disability or a medical diagnosis that is incompatible with the purpose of the sentence should be considered as well; It is desirable not to pardon wanted persons; The convict shall not be pardoned for attempting murder of a police officer or law enforcement officer; Pardon should preferably be used exclusively,” wrote Talakvadze on his Facebook page.

The Minister of Justice described the meeting with the President as interesting and productive, noting that while pardoning it should be taken into account, whether the pardoning candidate contains any risk for the public and whether he or she will commit the crime again.

“Accordingly, our guiding principle is to pardon a prisoner but also to protect the public from crime. We will wait for the President's decree to be issued, so that prisoners, probationers, and convicts can be more vigilant about pardon procedures," said Tsulukiani.

“We have offered the President the maximum consideration of the risk factors that may be associated with a particular offender during his or her pardon, his or her post-pardon behavior in the community and its integration," commented Anri Okhanashvili, chair of the Legal Issues Committee.

He said that the President had addressed Parliament with a request for a recommendation on the pardon act. Parliament passed the President's opinions through consultations.

“We think it is advisable to pardon a low-risk person who can integrate fully into society and not create additional risks. Also, those who have escaped justice and have not been held responsible for a crime for which they have convicted and are wanted are not eligible for a pardon based on the victim's interests. The crime, the degree, and the motive that the convict has identified in the course of a particular action should be taken into consideration and investigated as much as possible.” - Okhanashvili said.

According to him, the offer has a recommendation character and it’s the president who must make the final decision.

The President of Georgia announced a moratorium on pardoning convicts on September 18 after it was revealed that among 34 convicts that were pardoned at the celebration of Mariamoba, 3 had been convicted of murder.

On September 20, the General Prosecutor's Office launched an investigation into the pardoning convictions of President Salome Zourabichvili.

The parliamentary opposition party European Georgia demands the creation of the parliamentary commission to investigate the possible corruption scheme in the case of pardoning prisoners.

On October 30, at a briefing, lawmaker Irma Nadirashvili said that no more than a month after the investigation was launched, there is no intermediate information on the course of the investigation, nor was the president questioned. Nadirashvili announced that their suspicion that the prosecutor’s office started the investigation only to suppress the noise of public was justified and that Europan Georgia will not allow Georgian Dream’s prosecution to put this case on the shelf.

The party demands that the matter be referred to Parliament for consideration and calls on the majority to support the creation of the commission.

European Georgia has already registered a draft resolution on setting up a temporary parliamentary commission on possible corruption schemes under the President's Pardon Act.