Pardoning Commission to Move to Justice Ministry

The Pardoning Commission of Georgia, the body under the President which discusses all cases sent by inmates or their families and makes the initial decision which prisoners are deemed to deserve pardoning, will now function at the ministry of Justice.

The statement was made by the President of Georgia, Salome Zurabishvili, while delivering her first report before parliamentarians on March 6.

Currently, the President’s Pardoning Commission is composed of 10 people. Members are mostly lawyers from the civil sector and public figures, alongside the Public Defender and the Georgian Patriarchate.

The Commission chooses from the inmates’ applications the ones who deserve pardoning and send the list to the President for approval. The President is the only person authorized to grant pardons in Georgia.

During her speech, the first female president of Georgia noted that during the term of the previous president, the practice of pardoning resembled acts of amnesty rather than a concept based on the discrete right of the President.

“The discrete right of pardoning means the selection of individual prisoner cases by the President where the priority goes to human principles. This [change] will reduce risks to the public,” Zurabishvili said.

According to the President, having a state Pardoning Commission at the Justice Ministry will ensure the involvement of representatives of different administrative bodies in the commission work.

“The commission will discuss applications which meet new criteria, and prepare recommendations. The final decision will remain the President’s prerogative. Private, social, religious or political factors will not influence the decision-making,” she said, adding that the number of commission members will be increased.

Former Head of the Pardoning Commission, Zviad Koridze, says the President’s decision to transfer the body to the Justice Ministry will definitely result in less effective outcomes as it is the President’s function to pardon inmates.

“In this situation, we will get a very inefficient, inactive and dead pardoning mechanism. The pardoning function was imposed by society on the President, not on the executive government,” Koridze noted.

He said even in 2014-2015, the authorities tried to take the pardoning function from then-President Margvelashvili, who is often criticized by the governmental officials for having pardoned “too many inmates.”

“The government did not win back then but today we see that Zurabishvili herself transferred this power to the authorities. It means the body which manages the penitentiary system will also have the right to pardon prisoners,” Koridze stressed.

Justice Minister Thea Tsulukiani says they will work with the president on the Pardoning Commission formation and further procedures.

“It is necessary to have a commission which consists of professionals. No writers and artists will be included in the mechanism but social workers, psychologists, teachers and other competent people,” the Minister said.

By Thea Morrison

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