1237 Amnestied Prisoners Returned back to Penitentiary Establishments

Rati Kharatishvili

In 2012 Parliament of Georgia, after having overridden the president’s veto, passed the Law on Amnesty. Ministry of Internal Affairs and different fractions of the Parliament of Georgia did not support the amnesty law but with big effort of the parliamentary majority the law went in force.

On December 28, 2012 the Amnesty Law of Georgia applied to 16 534 prisoners and 12 722 probationers. In accordance to the law, 8 752 accused/convicted persons were released from prison. Among them: 8 289 were men, 438 women, 25 male juveniles and 0 – female juveniles. All convicts had their sentences reduced at ¼ except those convicted for grave crimes.

The law was estimated to be implemented with two months term; an exception were prisoners convicted under Article 180 of the Criminal Code of Georgia, swindle, who could be amnestied upon the consent of the victims in their cases. Four months were estimated as maximum term to discuss cases of these convicts.

On April 13, 2015 chairwoman of the Human Rights and Civil Integration Committee of the Parliament of Georgia Eka Beselia commented about the law.

“Hence so few among the amnestied prisoners committed repeated crimes prove that the amnesty outcomes were correctly and accurately foreseen.”

According to the information provided by the Ministry of Corrections and Legal Aid, 1 237 persons out of 8752 amnestied convicts repeatedly committed crimes and were sent back to prisons. Among them 1218 persons are men, 12 women, 7 male juveniles and 0 female juveniles.

However, the Ministry of Corrections could not provide Human Rights Center with statistic data how many of the convicts, who were sent back to prisons after amnesty, have left penitentiary establishments or still serve their terms. The Ministry does not have similar statistic data.