Journalist steps up as head of Pardon Commission

Georgia’s Pardon Commission has a new leader after the previous one stepped down and ran in the municipal elections and was elected a member of Tbilisi City Council.

President Giorgi Margvelashvili introduced journalist Zviad Koridze to the role today.

The President thanked Koridze for kindly accepting his request to lead the Commission and thanked former leader Aleksandre Elisashvili for the "priceless work” he did in the role.

Koridze was a Commission member before the President asked him to step up and take on the higher position.

Today Koridze said the Commission would speed up its working process and would hold several meeting "in the hot summer” as a lot of applications had been submitted and there was much work to be done.

Koridze promised the parole board would leave no application unanswered.

The 45-year-old cemented a name for himself in the country’s media industry. In his career he has worked for several media outlets in Georgia and further abroad for more than a decade.

Recently, he chaired the Georgian Charter of Journalistic Ethics and lectured journalism students at a number of local universities.

Elisashvili, the previous head of the Pardon Commission, was also a journalist. He took part in the June 15 Municipal Elections as a Tbilisi independent majoritarian candidate and won his category.