The Committee discussed for the II reading and approved the legal initiative of the Faction “Georgian Dream”, the Draft Law on Amnesty. The reporter, the Committee member, the First Deputy Chair of the Faction, Archil Gorduladze introduced the planned amendments.

Under the Draft, the amnesty shall apply to the convicts for the wearing of the melee weapon with a certain reservation. As elucidated, the persons shall be exempted from criminal liability and the punishment, who have committed the crime envisaged under part 1, Article 2381 of the Law, implying the wearing of the melee weapon by the convict for drug use.

The Draft covers Article 2201 (negligence), namely, under part 1 of the Article, the convicts shall be released. As the reporter underlined, the principles of amnesty in the hereof Article will be specified at the plenary session. The Draft also envisages that the convicts for the violation of the fire safety regulations shall be exempted from criminal liability and the punishment with the reservation solely if the aggrieved party gives consent.

Besides, the consent of the aggrieved parties will exempt the convicts for the forging of documents. Another amendment concerns drug crime, namely, if the crimes envisaged under part 3, Article 260, part 3 of Article 261 and part 2 of Article 265 of the Criminal Code are committed by a group of persons, then the sentence shall not be halved but reduced by 1/6.

The consent of the aggrieved parties will as well serve as the basis for halving the sentence for the persons committing the crime envisaged under part 1 of Article 116 (negligent homicide) and part 6 of Article 276 (violation of the traffic safety or transport exploitation rules). Amnesty also applies to the penalties envisaged for the concealing of a crime and a failure to report a crime, and whatever the period that the punishment for a certain crime is reduced, the same proportion applies to the reduction of the punishment for two aforementioned crimes.

The Draft prescribes the forms of amnesty as follows: immediate release; reduction of the sentence by 1/2, 1/4 and 1/6, and by one year of the conditional sentence for the probationers. The Draft shall not apply to the persons convicted for murder, drug sale, sexual abuse, aggravated robbery, terrorism, corruption and official crimes, mob law, conventional crime and other serious and particularly serious crimes.

“After the application of the amnesty, about 1000 persons will be immediately released, and about 4800 persons will have reduced sentences and will gradually leave the penitentiary departments”, - said Gorduladze.