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President Zourabichvili talks pardoning Mikheil Saakashvili in BBC interview

By Liza Mchedlidze
Tuesday, November 22, 2022
In the BBC program HARDtalk, a journalist asked the President of Georgia, Salome Zourabichvili about pardoning the former imprisoned president of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili and asked for the reason the President is not pardoning Saakashvili. In response, she said that she has 'no right' to do so as the ex-president is still on trial.

Zourabichvili also noted that she does not want to become an instrument of deepening polarization, although she does not want the former president to die in prison, so she closely monitors his health condition.

When asked whether she will pardon the ex-president when everything is over, Salome Zourabichvili said: "This is another matter, I explained why I will not do it."

"I don't have the authority to do that for one simple reason, the sentencing is not over, he's still on trial, and according to Georgian law, pardons happen when everything's over," the president said in an interview with the BBC when asked why she's not using the power of herself as a president to pardon Mikheil Saakashvili.

"This is a different matter, I explained in detail why I would not do this [I would not pardon] in Georgia. As this is the main factor of polarization, there is practically no family in Georgia that has not experienced its autocratic regime. That's why I don't think I should become an instrument of further polarization. But at the same time, I am a head of state who does not want the former president to die in prison or to suffer from irreversible health-related processes, so I am very closely monitoring all medical examinations, as well as waiting for the report of the international medical team, which has not yet been published.

In Georgia, I publicly repeated that he should be extradited (I don't know exactly what this term is called) so that he can get additional [medical assistance], he has been in the clinic for 6 months, and the court should make this decision," President Zourabichvili said.