Best New Year present from Minister of Corrections:
13 year-old boy’s letter frees his father from jail

A 13-year old living in a children's village in a central Georgian city has seen his father for the first time in seven years after his New Year's Eve wish was fulfilled by authorities.

Vakho Abashishvili spent 12 years in the Kutaisi Children's Village where he was brought along with his brother at the age of a year and a half.

Living at the Village while assisting his mother in family needs, Vakho had last seen his father at the age of five, with the latter serving a criminal sentence at the Penitentiary Facility No. 16 in Georgia's eastern city Rustavi.

For the New Year's Eve the youngster sent a hopeful letter to the Minister of Corrections of Georgia Kakha Kakhishvili, asking if his father could be freed from the prison to celebrate the festive season with the family.

In time for the year's end celebrations Vakho learned his plea had been fulfilled as Giorgi Abashishvili was discharged from the Facility along with 148 other prisoners in the government's New Year's Eve pardon.

The newly released Abashishvili told Imedi channel reporters he had not expected to be freed eight months before the end of his sentence that was to run to August 2016.

The prisoners released within the governmental pardon left the facilities of their detention on December 31.