Interior minister candidate: pardoning murderer of policeman unacceptable
Candidates for the cabinet of ministers are being heard by MPs in parliament, following the resignation of Prime Minister Mamuka Bakhtadze on September 2. Photo: State Security Service of Georgia
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The candidate for interior minister and current head of the State Security Service Vakhtang Gomelauri said it is unacceptable for him to pardon an individual who has been charged with murdering a police officer.
Responding to journalists questions earlier today, Gomelauri said that no one, who has committed heavy crimes, should be pardoned, especially the one charged for killing an officer.
Georgian President Salome Zurabishvili has recently pardoned 34 individuals including Ramaz Devadze, who has been sentenced to 12 years in prison on murder charges of a police officer Tarash Mukbaniani in Georgia’s Black Sea town of Batumi in 2014.
Zurabishvili's decision to pardon Devadze has been widely criticised by members of opposition and ruling party as well, including Parliament Speaker Archil Talakvadze.
The First female President of Georgia Salome Zurabishvili has issued her first pardon decree and has pardoned three female inmates.
Georgian President Salome Zurabishvili has pardoned 34 individuals, including one minor and eight women on the Day of the Virgin Mary today. As of today, President Zurabishvili has pardoned a total of 97 individuals since December 17, 2018.
Eight prisoners left the penitentiary facilities immediately on May 24. The other four, including a female, were on probation and have been released from all restrictions.
Georgian President Salome Zurabishvili has pardoned 19convicts for the Easter holiday, the head of the President’s Administration Lasha Zhvania stated.
MPs of the United National Movement (UNM) and the European Georgia opposition have temporarily suspended the boycott of parliamentary sessions and decided to meet with the candidates for the premiership and ministers later today, as part of the mandatory procedure of meeting with parliamentary factions before the final vote to elect a new PM and the cabinet of ministers.
The candidate for the premiership Giorgi Gakharia has been asked almost all the questions regarding the June 20 rally dispersal by the United National Movement MPs earlier today, as part of the mandatory procedure of a meeting with parliamentary factions before the final vote for the new cabinet and the PM takes place.
Georgian President Salome Zurabishvili has made her first official comment on pardoning an individual who has been charged with murdering a police officer. Zurabishvili said yesterday that she is sorry that the act of pardoning, which is a ”human act” in its nature, has become the cause of misunderstanding.
Ruling Georgian Dream party members say that legal changes are needed to specify all the procedures and preconditions for the presidential pardon of inmates.
The statements come after two scandalous pardons by President Salome Zurabishvili, one when she pardoned a man who was sentenced for the murder of a police officer and another, which took place two weeks ago, when a man also convicted for murder was pardoned.
Georgian President Salome Zurabishvili has declared a moratorium on pardoning prisoners until all rules and procedures are clarified. In doing so Zurabishvili is responding to recent turmoil surrounding two pardons of inmates convicted for intentional murder.
The Georgian Chief Prosecutor’s Office has launched an investigation looking into possible misuse of authority in the pardon cases of former convicts Ramaz Devadze, Aslan Bezhanidze, Zurab Nadiradze and ‘others.’ All of the three individuals, convicted for murder, have been pardoned by President Salome Zuravbishvili.
A foreign citizen has been detained for murdering a policeman in Gori, a town of eastern Georgia. Police say the detainee injured the policeman in the latter’s apartment, which he had been renting. He fled the scene of the crime.