PM: ‘No Mercy’ for Amnestied Ex-Convicts Turned Repeat Offenders

The state will be “merciless” to those, who were released from jails as a result of large-scale amnesty in 2013 but became repeat offenders, PM Irakli Garibashvili said on April 9 as manhunt continues for an ex-convict suspected of fatally shooting two policemen and injuring two others.

“I promise everyone, who have been pardoned or released [from jail] as a result of amnesty by our government, but who failed to appreciate such humane act taken by the state, that the state will be merciless to all those persons, who do not give up their criminal activities. I promise it publicly,” Garibashvili said.

“Everyone, who will raise hand against the state, will be punished in the strictest manner. There is no place for them among us,” he said.

“I have already instructed the Interior Minister and others to immediately clean our society of such criminals,” PM Garibashvili added.

He made the remarks while speaking with journalists after attending a funeral ceremony of a policeman, who was fatally shot in Varketili, Tbilisi suburb, on April 4; another policeman was badly injured.

A suspect in this shooting incident was identified by the Interior Ministry as Shalva Abuladze, a native of the town of Borjomi, who has been wanted by the police since January for allegedly killing one policeman and injuring another one in a separate shooting incident that took place in Borjomi on January 23. When the police tried to apprehend the suspect in early hours of April 5 in Tbilisi, after the second shooting incident, he again opened fire and managed to escape. He remains at large.

The suspect is an ex-convict, who spent over seven years, less than half of his lengthy prison term, in jail for attempted murder charges before being released in late November, 2013. His release was made possible, at first through halving of his prison term as a result of large-scale amnesty, which was enacted few months after the GD coalition came into power, and then through granting him a pre-term release by a special pardon commission.

Ex-PM Bidzina Ivanishvili also commented on the issue on April 9, saying that rightness of the large-scale amnesty, carried out when he served as the Prime Minister, should “not be called into question” because of this case.

Speaking with journalists outside his residence in Tbilisi, Ivanishvili said that “only 6 percent” of those, who were released as a result of the large-scale amnesty, “returned back” to prison.

“It shows that absolute majority of those [who were in prison and released as a result of amnesty] were absolutely innocent,” said Ivanishvili. “These attacks on amnesty is senseless and you, journalists, should not follow suit [in criticizing the amnesty]. There were lots of innocent people in jails when [the United] National Movement [part] was in power – do you have any doubts about it?”

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