Who will be granted amnesty in Georgia? Parliament has proposals from both the ruling party and the opposition
Georgia’s amnesty: who benefits?
Around 10,000 individuals are set to have their prison sentences reduced under the ‘Amnesty Law’ proposed by Georgia‘s ruling party, Georgian Dream. Meanwhile, parliament has had an opposition-prepared amnesty bill since February.
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Ruling party’s draft amnesty law
The ruling party’s draft amnesty law covers criminal offenses committed before July 1, 2024, impacting 66 articles of Georgia’s Criminal Code, with reduced sentences by one-sixth for an additional 225 articles.
hairman of Parliament’s Human Rights and Civil Integration Committee Rati Ionatamishvili clarified exclusions: murder, drug trafficking, sexual offenses, robbery, terrorism, corruption, organized crime, human trafficking, and other serious crimes.
Special provisions apply to probationers, reducing terms by one year for approximately 7,000 individuals, a new approach compared to previous amnesty programs, Ionatamishvili noted.
The bill is set for first-reading approval at an extraordinary parliamentary session.
Read the full bill here.
Opposition’s amnesty draft law
On February 28, 2024, a faction of the opposition introduced a draft amnesty bill in parliament, led by the “Girchi” party and co-authored by the “National Movement,” “Strategy Aghmashenebeli,” “European Socialists,” Aleko Elisashvili, Khatia Dekanoidze, and Tariel Nakaidze.
If passed, this bill would significantly mitigate sentences for nearly all prisoners, excluding those convicted of crimes against minors.
Girchi party leader Iago Khvichia asserted that the amnesty would also apply to former Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili.
However, Parliament speaker Shalva Papuashvili recently reiterated that “amnesty for the former president should be forgotten.”
Former prime minister Giorgi Gakharia’s party also opposes exempting those convicted of official crimes from accountability through the amnesty bill.
Key proposals of the opposition’s draft include:
- Reducing sentences for serious and particularly serious crimes by 1/4.
- Halving sentences for less serious crimes.
- Halving sentences for drug-related and official crimes.
- Revising life sentences to 30 years.
The accompanying note to the draft states:
“Today, Georgia leads Europe in the number of prisoners, and its criminal code is more repressive than Soviet legislation.”
