President ends moratorium on pardoning violent crime convicts

Georgian President Giorgi Margvelashvili has suspended a moratorium on pardoning individuals who have been convicted for violent crimes, head of the Pardon Commission Zviad Koridze announced today.

Koridze told the media that Margvelashvili removed the moratorium on July 23 and gave the right to the commission members to discuss cases of violent crime convicts. 

Koridze  stated that the president ended the moratorium after his consultations with civil activists and NGOs.

Koridze also said that shortly after the president announced the moratorium in April this year, he met with then-Minister of Corrections Kakha Kakhishvili and they agreed that the ministry will have a representative in the Pardon Commission.

However, after the structural changes, the Ministry of Justice [The Ministry of Corrections was earlier merged with the Ministry of Justice] refused to have a representative in the commission,” Koridze said.

Margvelashvili stated that he temporarily suspended pardons for individuals convicted of violent crimes in the wake of the murder of a 25-year-old woman in front of her two children by her stepfather in central Tbilisi on April 13.

Many accused Margvelashvili after the murder as the man who was detained for committing the crime was once pardoned by Margvelashvili,  the only authorised state figure in Georgia permitted to pardon inmates.

The president stated then that he needed to consult  with state bodies and the civil sector on how to act concerning violent crimes.