Ruling party unhappy with recent presidential pardons, offers legal changes

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. 

• Interior minister candidate: pardoning murderer of policeman unacceptable

When it comes to the pardon of prisoners nobody, including the president, must act based on their own view. There must be clear preconditions to allow the pardon,” member of the ruling Georgian Dream party Giorgi Volski said. 

Tbilisi Mayor Kakha Kaladze stated that pardoning of the murderer of David Otkhmezuri [the pardon which took place two weeks ago] was “unacceptable,” adding that the president is not also against the legal changes to regulate the pardon issue.

Tbilisi Mayor Kakha Kaladze says that changes in the law are required to avoid problems in the pardon issue. Photo: Kakha Kaladze's press office. 

Aslan Bezhanidze was convicted for the premediated murder of Otkhmezuri in 2016. The incident took place back in 2004 when Bezhanidze killed Otkhmezuri during a dispute about a mobile phone in central Tbilisi, the Prosecutor’s Office reported  in 2016. 

Bezhanidze’s lawyer confirmed  that the man was pardoned by the president two weeks ago and the decision was “fair.” 

In March 2019, during her speech in parliament, Zurabishvili said that the pardon commission, which was subordinated to the president [the president is the only authorised official to pardon inmates in Georgia], could move under the control of the Ministry of Justice, with more state agencies involved in the discussion of applications for pardon.

She said that the president would make a final decision on pardon.

• The President’s Pardon Commission [under previous presidents] was composed of 11 individuals, mainly lawyers from the civil sector, public figures, the Public Defender and a spiritual representative from Georgia’s Patriarchate.
• The group must have discussed all cases sent to the Pardon Commission by inmates or their families and decide which prisoners they believe deserve to be pardoned. The list then was sent to the president to be signed.
• After the election of Zurabishvili as the president [at the  end of 2018] members of the pardon commission were either dismissed or they quit posts themselves. The commission has not been functional since the beginning of the year.