Christoph Strasser: “Georgian Amnesty Law Is Exemplary”

Member of Social-Democrat Fraction of Bundestag and human rights defender Christoph Strasser said the Amnesty Law, that was enacted in Georgia, is an exemplary.

“Georgia is the first country, where political prisoners were released from imprisonment in accordance to the criteria estimated by the Council of Europe. The law might become an exemplary one for its neighbor countries. We do hope, this Amnesty Law will exceed Georgian borders,” the statement of the Social-Democrat Fraction of the German Bundestag reads: (http://www.christoph-straesser.de/meldung.php?meldung=2777&page; http://www.fidh.org/Georgian-political-prisoners-13043).

International Federation for Human Rights and Georgian Human Rights Center calls upon the government to set up a special commission to study cases of political prisoners, who were released from imprisonment before the Amnesty Law was put in force and to grant relevant status to them; to further investigate the cases of alleged political prisoners; to reform the judiciary system and to ensure its compliance with international and regional instruments of human rights ratified by Georgia.

It is noteworthy that in 2009 report After the Rose the Thrones, FIDH and Human Rights Center used CoE criteria to underline the presence of political prisoners in Georgia. The organizations studied eight pilot cases where signs of politically motivated persecution were underscored and studied. Two prisoners, whose statuses were estimated in this survey, were released from prison in the frame of the Amnesty Law, whilst others left penitentiary establishments when their terms expired, before the law was put in force.

The purpose of the FIDH is to protect human rights guaranteed by Universal Declaration on Human Rights and other international documents. More than 105 organizations in 86 countries represent the network of experience and solidarity which document human rights violations in many countries and deserve absolute trust. http://www.fidh.org/

News Agency Pirveli