Rati Ionatamishvili, the parliamentary majority member and the Human Rights Protection and Civil Integration Committee chairperson, announced at a briefing that the ruling Georgian Dream party introduced an Amnesty bill.

The bill aims to strike a balance between humanism and public security interests.

“In his annual report to the Parliament, Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze mentioned that the Georgian Dream government was preparing an Amnesty bill to align the number of prisoners with European standards. The Georgian Dream parliamentary faction has initiated a balanced Amnesty Project based on a fair balance between humanism principles and public security interests.

It aims to mitigate relapse risks, consider victims’ interests, comply with international legal standards, align with criminal justice policy priorities, and create favourable conditions for resocialization. The amnesty will apply to different types of crimes committed before July 1, 2024, including those under 66 articles of the Criminal Code of Georgia. About 225 articles will be affected by a 1/6 reduction in penalties.

The draft establishes various forms of amnesty, including complete exemption from responsibility and punishment, reduction of punishment by ½, reduction of punishment by ¼, reduction of punishment by 1/6, and a one-year reduction in probation for probationers.

Notably, the amnesty project introduces a 1/6 reduction rule, broadening the scope of beneficiaries while protecting victims’ interests by adhering to humanism principles.

However, amnesty will not apply to those convicted of murder, drug dealing, sexual crimes, robbery, terrorism, corruption crimes, the ‘thieves underworld’, conventional crimes, trafficking, and other grave and especially grave crimes. The amnesty also takes a special approach to probationers, reducing conditional sentences by one year for about 7,000 individuals, which is a novelty compared to previous amnesty projects.

The law is planned to be adopted in the first reading at an extraordinary session. The government aims for an inclusive and transparent process, continuing work on the draft within the autumn session. They are open to reasoned comments and ready to incorporate minor changes during committee hearings,” said Rati Ionatamishvili.