President pardons 84 prisoners on New Year

More than 80 people serving sentence in prisons were pardoned by the President Giorgi Margvelashvili for the New Year.

Head of the Presidential Pardon Commission Zviad Koridze shared this news on a special press-conference today.

According to him, out of the 84 pardoned inmates, 63 prisoners, including one woman and one underage person, would be released today.

As for the other 21 convicts, their sentences have been reduced. Out of these remaining prisoners, one is a woman and four are underage.

Zviad Kroidze noted the pardoned inmates were convicted for drug related crimes, transport and security violations, fraud, theft attempts, body injuries and illegal movement on borders.

The inmates convicted for particularly serious crimes could not get in the list of pardoned people.

To a question, why there were so few women in the list, Koridze replied that out of the 493 cases that were received by the commission for discussion, there very only several applications by women.

"The commission also had this question. We will try to receive corresponding information from specific institutions. My personal opinion is that I am waiting for more applications from women for next commission meetings, because by that time the 6-month period which prohibited the refused defendants to re-apply will pass,” he said.

Overall, the commission reviewed 493 cases.