Parliament adopted on December 5 with 77 votes to 14 a resolution recognizing 190 persons, arrested and convicted for various criminal charges under the previous government, as “political prisoners” and 25 others as being “in political exile”.
The resolution, which was given by the Georgian Dream parliamentary majority a standing ovation after the vote, was condemned by the UNM parliamentary minority as “shameful”.
The Parliament, according to the resolution, will now have to develop legal mechanisms through which those in the list should be exonerated.
It might either through law on amnesty, which is currently under discussion in the Parliament, or through some other legal forms, according to Eka Beselia, a Georgian Dream lawmaker, who chairs the parliamentary committee for human rights.
MP Beselia was in the forefront of the process of compiling this list of 215 “political prisoners” and “political exiles”, which was done by a working group, established in early November at the parliamentary committee for human rights.
