New Georgian bill "On Amnesty" assumes shorter terms for all prisoners

The Georgian Parliament is drafting – with the participation of academic circles and non-governmental organizations – a unique bill "On Amnesty", where one point assumes to reduce the terms of all the prisoners. This was announced today by Ekaterina Beseliya, Chair of the Parliamentary Committee on Human Rights and Civil Integration, at the "roundtable" in Tbilisi, where the bill was discussed.

The draft of the law will be brought for the first reading to the above Committee on November 19.

"The bill is unique; and I'll stand for one of its points – reduction of the term of imprisonment of absolutely all prisoners, so that every of them could feel the amnesty – to the end," said Ekaterina Beseliya.

According to her story, the bill will reflect most of the recommendations of the Ministry of Justice and NGOs. "We want to pass the law "On Amnesty" openly and in consultation with experts in order to minimize mistakes or exclude them completely," she said.

Ms Beseliya has added that Georgia is among the three leading countries by the number of prisoners. A high mortality rate is registered among them; and about 90 percent of them are sick, because they are not isolated from each other.

In his turn, Alexander Baramidze, Deputy Minister of Justice has noted that during consultations on the bill between the Ministry and above Parliamentary Committee agreement on many issues was reached.

The bill assumes to halve the prison terms for women, minors and those who had committed financial and economic crimes; and shortening probation down to two-three years (currently, eight-nine years).