Georgian NGO “Young Barristers” accuses the President of Georgia Giorgi Margvelashvili in violation of his own decree and talks about private interests of the pardon commission while considering issues.
Archil Kaikatsishvili, a Head of “Young Barristers” says, that the organization has researched legal aspects of the Presidential pardoning act of July 23, 2015 and his practical steps make an impression that he has violated his own decree, while supporting “white-collar crimes.” In particular, the President of Georgia, Giorgi Margvelashvili, introduced new procedures for presidential pardons through his decree of March 27, 2014, #120. According to the 2nd paragraph of the article 2 of the decree, there is no presidential pardon applicable for person convicted for less than 5 years who has not served at least 1/3 of the sentence in prison. According to the same 2nd article of the same decree, pardon is not applicable for those, whose case has not completed in all 3 instances of court and if the term to appeal court decision in the higher instance court has not expired. Both, the President and the Pardon Commission have ignored legally binding norms and the pardoning act of July 23, 2015 became a manifestation of political loyalty.
“Young Barristers” appeals to the President of Georgia and Pardon Commission to provide criteria, according to which Zurab Jibukhaia, the former Governor of Khoni Municipality, Besarion Tchelidze, the former deputy Governor of the same Municipality and Levan Bobokhidze, the former member of Khoni Council were pardoned. Levan Bobokhidze was sentenced to 3 years and 6 months of imprisonment and he had served only 8 months in prison. In addition, Mr. Bobokhidze’s case was appealed to the Court of Cassation on May 19, 2015 and there is no final decision made by Court so far. There is another article of his own decree, which the President has violated as well. Namely, the decree says, that following circumstances should be taken into consideration while pardoning prisoner: whether or not the offender repents or acknowledges his/her guilt. Levan Bobokhidze has never confessed and the damage to the state budget is not covered so far. Unfortunately, the President and the Pardon Commission keep silent over these arguments.
“Young Barristers” believes, that the decision, made by the President, is political rather than legal and serves the interests of “United National Movement”. Levan Bobokhidze, Besarion Tchelidze and Zurab Jibukhaia worked in the local Municipality due to “United National Movement” quota. They were accused of squandering large amount of State property, abuse of official power and professional fabrication. As it is known, Levan Bobokhidze is Akaki Bobokhidze’s brother. The latter is the member of the Parliament of Georgia. According to the information of the organization, Akaki Bobokhidze’s relationships with the President and Pardon Commission have decided the issue of pardon.
Court decision says, that in 2010, timber and firewood, which was a state property and was designed to be given to the vulnerable population of Khoni Municipality, was transferred to the natural person without any charge. As a result of this crime scheme, organized by Levan Bobokhidze, 213,662 m3 of timber and firewood, costing 28 884.45 GEL, was wasted.
The organization believes, that by adopting such a decision, the President has discredited his own decree and generally, institution of pardoning. We welcome the frequency of the presidential pardons, but at the same time we consider it unacceptable to release people accused of a serious crimes, due to political tolerance. Along with the process of restoring justice, there shall be no selective justice, the interests of the public society shall not be ignored. As long as pardoning prisoners is an exclusive authority of the President, it should not be fitted to any political goal. While the president refuses to pardon convicted Tea Siradze, a mother of 4 children, accused for beating 5 foreigners, trying to abuse her, it is unclear why does the President show such a tolerance towards so called “white-collar crimes.”
“Young Barristers” calls the President of Georgia to review his policy of pardon so that the cases, discussed by the Commission in the future, didn’t become an issue of public resistance.
