Georgia pardons 143 prisoners

Today, Giorgi Margvelashvili, the Georgia's President, has signed a decree to pardon 143 prisoners, Zviad Koridze, the head of the pardoning commission, has reported. According to his story, 84 pardoned inmates will be released today; and 59 others will have their terms reduced, the "Channel One" of the Georgia's Public Broadcaster informs on its website.

Zviad Koridze has clarified that the pardoning commission worked on May 16-19, and examined 1347 convicts' cases. It has postponed the consideration of 216 cases of those convicted for violent crimes, and will return after the expiry of the moratorium for pardoning such convicts, the InterPressNews reports.

On April 16, President Margvelashvili announced the suspension of the pardoning process in relation to convicts for violence. This happened after a young woman was killed in Tbilisi on April 13. On April 14, her stepfather was arrested on suspicion of the murder; investigators found out that earlier he had been sentenced for domestic violence and was pardoned.

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.