Georgian parliament overturns Saakashvili veto, freeing political prisoners

Published time: January 12, 2013 14:47
Edited time: January 12, 2013 18:47
AFP Photo / Vano Shlamov

The Georgian parliament overturned President Saakashvili’s veto and signed the law that grants freedom to about 200 political prisoners, as well as thousands of others, for the first time in the country’s modern history.

­Speaker of country’s parliament Davit Usupashvili called a press briefing Saturday and signed the law in front of journalists.  

The bill came into force immediately and this means that detainees will start leaving detention facilities as soon as Sunday. Political prisoners – around 200 people – are to be released in the first place.

“From 10:00 in the morning on Sunday, the process of releasing [political prisoners] will start, and in one hour everyone will leave,” the minister said.

In November, the Parliamentary Committee on Human Rights declared 180 people detained in the country for different reasons as political prisoners and another 25 ‘in political exile’.

In early December the parliament approved the list of ‘political’ prisoners and said that it would press for their release by legal means.

The ministry vowed to send another 17,000 cases to court within three weeks after the law comes into force.

There are more than 20,000 people currently serving their terms in Georgian prisons.

Saakashvili’s opponents, who now have the majority of seats in the parliament, claim that the convicts had been sentenced for their political views and the cases were fabricated by Saakashvili’s people.

Initially the parliament passed the bill on the amnesty on December 21, ordering to release of the convicts included in the ‘political prisoners’ list. President Saakashvili called the bill “a disgrace of parliamentarianism” and vetoed it, claiming that not a single international organization has ever reported that Georgia had political prisoners.

Less than a week later, the parliament overturned the veto with the majority of votes – 91 against 24.

In response Saakashvili addressed the nation saying he wanted to protect society from the consequences of the amnesty that would release “the corruptors of the young, Russian spies, the conspirators plotting coups d’état and military mutinies.”

The president said it was “wrong” to include in the list people convicted on charges of spying for Russia and several military convicted in 2009 for attempting to overthrow state power.

"I am confident that the law will be written in the infamous list in the history of Georgia," he announced, warning that "if law came into force, the criminal situation in the country would deteriorate.”

The newly-elected parliament, mostly opposition to President Saakashvili, started preparing the law on amnesty immediately after the election. In the October vote, the Georgian Dream Coalition, headed by billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili, defeated Saakashvili’s United National (UNBK) Movement after nine years of rule.

Comments (12)

Dev (unregistered) 14.01.2013 13:27

The US puppet Saakashvili and his evil and brutal regime is coming to the end of the road. he will try and make a last stand to fight for his evil regime to stay in power to accomplish his main gold, his mail gold was to attack South Ossetia and Abkhazia to bring them under his control which didn't work out for him in AUG 2008. Unfortunately many Russian citizen woman, man and children last their life in a evil and brutal cowardly attack in the early morning of AUG 2008 when everyone was asleep in their bed. Saakashvili know he has to face a war crime charge not only for the crime he committed in South Ossetia but also brought his country into a war which many unknown Georgian soldiers lost their life and without informed nor agree with the opposition leader to go to war. Saakashvili think by forcing him self on the US and  NATO they will shield him from a war crime charge, but get it in your head Saakashvili US and NATO don't have any respect for you what so ever you're just their donkey that they used in Afghanistan and Iraq. US and NATO only respect Russia and China who they see is a threat to them.        

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dimon225 13.01.2013 16:53

@ed I'd be surprised if Russia actually fears Georgia, but what Russia does not want is for Georgia to become a NATO state. Why one would ask? Well 'cause defense ministry will have to finance, Georgi a - Russia border military establishment. Then on the nuclear global hit targets Georgia will have to be added into the database of enemy states and its coordinates will have to be saved in the system , so it would be easy hit it with nuclear war heads if war would arrive.

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Shulbinsky 13.01.2013 03:03

As the sovereign debt crisis further deepens in both EU and US (instead of gloating at Euro's failure, Dollar finds itself crumbling together..), NATO gradually becomes "EU-nized" and more factioned, a forum of grunting pathetic debate on devising rogue plans to punish the innocent and puny rather than to protect and guide the transatlantic humans, a hotbed of over-beaurocratizati on of the imbecile therefrom. If NATO wants to survive, a process of "de-americanization" has to occur as well as a stepwise replacement or superseding by a European security force. (Former US defense secretary Gate's criticism of NATO being overly-redundant with little efficiency and dissatisfaction that US alone has to bear over 70% of NATO cost only responded by Europeans' growing sentiment that "Nowadays no one needs your military-industrial presence in Europe any longer hence the least you can is to bear your own cost"). NATO's final dissolution will dawn when the BRIC countries, especially Russia, China and Brazil rise to another level of unprecedented economic, technological and political prosperity in the coming years. The best stance Georgia may take is to be neutral at the moment, and not to injure yourself again by falling for the "to-be-enslaved" trap again set by a consistent Anglisch-lying entity (USA) or one soon to be coffined (NATO), but to start rebuild relations with Russia and perhaps in the future, the Eurasian Union, to which THE FUTURE OF THE ENTIRE EURASIA CONTINENT arguably belongs. After all, Georgia as a country is geographically located in Eurasia, not in America.

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