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Pardon Mechanism in Georgia – Problems and Challenges

August 4, 2015
 
Natia Gogolashvili

On July 30, Human Rights Center held a round table on the topic: “Pardon Mechanism in Georgia – Problems and Challenges”. The representatives of NGOs, also the current and former chairs of the pardon commission, Zviad Koridze and Elene Tevdoradze participated in the discussion. Several issues have been outlined during the discussion.

“Pardoning is a humane action. Pardoning is a principle of humanism, which lies in the fundament of the state. This is the only lever, which is used to outline humanity. Pardoning is an exclusive right of the President, which is imposed to him by the constitution. Therefore, we have to talk about those problems that make the pardon mechanism current for the society. Pardoning has nothing to do with legality or justice. When we say that it is an exclusive right of the President, it breaches the principle of equity,”-said Zviad Koridze.

According to Zviad Koridze, the miscarriages of justice have not been eliminated yet, which causes serious problems, because people with violated rights identify the pardoning mechanism with the mechanism for elimination of the miscarriages of justice and this is not right.

“Due to political situation, because of the fact that the country had serious problems of justice and the early release commissions were not equipped properly, many prisoners addressed the pardon commission. Political class did not spend any time to eliminate the miscarriages of justice. Politicians visit jails and tell the prisoners that because of the fact that they cannot create a commission for elimination of miscarriages, they have to address the President for pardoning,”-said Zviad Koridze.m 

According to the lawyer of Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association, Mikheil Loladze, it would be better if the President establishes the grounds for the decision of pardoning. 

“It will be better if the President’s order that he issues for a specific convict is explained. Convicts should know, generally, when does the President exercise the right of the pardoning and when - not. It is important for convicts to know, what kind of criteria the President took into consideration while making the decision. After this, convicts will know what to improve,”- said Mikheil Loladze. 

Zviad Koridze and Elene Tevdoradze think that the President does not have to explain his decisions.

“The President does not refuse pardoning to anyone, the President pardons. There is no act for not pardoning. Prisons receive the list of those convicts whose cases were reviewed by the commission. Parole decisions are different; they have to be explained, because it is available to appeal against them. However, the pardoning is a humane action by the President, “- said Zviad Koridze. 

“If the President makes a decision which is unacceptable    for the society, this will be a subject to the political responsibility. I think that based on the regulation you cannot limit the president legally, because no regulations or laws can act against what is written in the constitution,”-said the chair of Georgian Bar Association, Zaza Khatiashvili. 

According to Elene Tevdoradze, it is also important to define, when the convict can address the pardon commission.

“When the plea bargaining institute was adopted, we agreed that 1/3 or1/2 of the whole sentence would have been counted for the pardoning (as for the imprisonment, as well as for the suspended sentences). In my opinion, when the court issues 1 year imprisonment and 4 year suspended sentence for convicts, the convict should not ask for the pardoning after 6 months out of the year. Otherwise why do we need a court?! This was not written in the regulation, but we used to do this. Now the approach has been changed,”- said Elene Tevdoradze.
 
According to Zviad Koridze, it is better if the pardoning mechanism is leaning on the side of the convict. 

In order to study various issues regarding the pardoning mechanism, Human Rights Center has started a new project –“Survey of Pardon Mechanism in Georgia”, which aims to support transparent and effective functioning of the pardon mechanism. Human Rights Center, based on the models of various democratic countries, will study the existing pardon mechanism model of Georgia, in order to discover its advantages and disadvantages. The recommendations will be sent to the President, the pardon commission and other target groups. The project is financed by Open Society Georgian Foundation. 

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