On July 19, 2024, the Parliament of Georgia passed an amnesty draft law in the first reading. The Public Defender’s Office also participated in the committee discussion. The Public Defender welcomes the implementation of adequate and fair mechanisms and approaches to prisoners. At the same time, we hope that public safety risks will also be insured.

First of all, it should be noted that amnesty is a human political act and the Public Defender, considering his mandate, cannot give concrete recommendations to the Parliament for what crimes or within what scope amnesty should apply to the convicted persons. On the other hand, at the level of principles, the Public Defender’s Office offered its vision to the Parliament of Georgia in three specific directions. In particular, the recommendation of the Public Defender is the following:

• In the process of considering the amnesty act, a discussion should be held regarding life-sentenced prisoners, who have served a reasonable part of their sentence, and the possibility of extending amnesty to them should be considered, taking into account that the general amnesty act passed in 2012 was only formally applied to the mentioned category of convicts, and in practice they did not have the opportunity to enjoy the benefits. At the same time, it is possible to develop additional conditions, which will make it possible to determine the circle of persons, whose life imprisonment can be replaced by fixed-term imprisonment, on the basis of the most fair and reasonable principle;
• The Public Defender proposes to the Parliament to take a more loyal approach towards prisoners, who are subject to amnesty, but in addition, have chronic and/or incurable diseases;
• Special care should be taken in the process of releasing those convicted of domestic violence. In particular, it is necessary to protect the interests and safety of the victims in the process of obtaining their consent; And they should be able to express their free will, without any coercion or illegal influence. Among them, it is possible to involve the relevant agencies in this process or interview the victim before the court, so that on the one hand, the judge can get convinced of the position of the victim and on the other hand, the court can determine the adequate conditions of the protective order, to ensure effective protection of the victim.

The Public Defender is ready to hold an additional working meeting with the initiators of the draft law and all interested groups. At the same time, he welcomes the will expressed by the Parliament in this direction.

We’d also like to note that in recent days there has been a high interest from the public regarding the current situation in penitentiary institutions relating to the amnesty act. Accordingly, based on the notifications received from the penitentiary establishments, on July 17 and 18, 2024, representatives of the Public Defender visited penitentiary establishments Nos. 2, 3, 5, 6, 8 and 14.

As a result of the visits, the Office learned that 8 convicts were on hunger strike with the request to expand the scope of the amnesty law. 14 life-sentenced prisoners in penitentiary establishment No. 8 had already stopped their hunger strike at the time of the visit.

Representatives of the Public Defender's Office will continue to meet with prisoners in other penitentiary institutions.