NGO’s addressed to the President to study cases of life-sentenced prisoners

Nino Akhobadze 

On November 25, at the press conference in the Press-club of the Prime Time, Human Rights Center and Former Political Prisoners for Human Rights addressed to the President of Georgia and Pardon Commission to study cases of life-sentenced prisoners.  

Human Rights Centre and Former Political Prisoners for Human Rights responded to the President's initiative to start a broader discussion for the purpose of studying the cases of life imprisonments. They believe that gravity of the committed crimes, consequences of the crimes and health conditions of prisoners, or other circumstances must be taken into consideration during discussion. 

NGOs call on the President to consider miscarriages of justice as particular circumstances when studying the cases of life-sentenced prisoners.  

"Miscarriages of justice must be considered as special circumstances, which, had huge impact on the judgments passed for the past ten years. These miscarriages were influence of Prosecutor’s office on the judiciary, political motives and other. Also, most of the prisoners because of the expired term for the appeal, are deprived of the possibility to appeal to the court. Consequently, their release or reduction of sentences is the only way for the elimination of miscarriages and restoration of justice,” said lawyer Nestan Londaridze of Human Rights Center at the press conference. 

Representatives of NGOs spoke about the case of Teimuraz Sharashenidze and as Nestan Londaridze noted it can become good example of the judiciary miscarriages. 

Teimuraz Sharashenidze was charged for the murder of Zurab Zubadalashvili. 

At the press conference Teimuraz Sharashenidze’s lawyer Gela Nikolaishvili said that, there are many violations in his client’s case: "The person, who holds license of a unique invention (five and ten tetri boxes for elevators) and earned millions with it, allegedly made a 2 000 USD deal with killers and killed Zurab Zubadalashvili himself.” 

According to the lawyer, the people involved in the murder were arrested, but as soon as the plea agreement entered into force, the accused person created a story according to which he blamed Sharashenidze in the murder. 

Non-governmental organizations Human Rights Centre and Former Political Prisoners for Human Rights addressed to the Pardon Commission to study the case of Teimuraz Sharashenidze in details and recommend to the President to issue a pardon decree on him to eliminate miscarriages of judiciary and to restore justice in the concrete case.