14 April 2012, 22:30
President of Georgia pardons 200 prisoners by Easter
Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili has decreed - on the eve of the Easter - to pardon 200 prisoners.
The pardoned prisoners will be at large by the end of the day, Khatuna Kalmakhelidze, Minister for Corrections, said at a briefing.
In total, before the Easter, the commission for pardons under President of Georgia considered 417 cases of prisoners; of these, it was decided to release 170 persons and to halve the remaining terms of 30 other convicts, the "News-Georgia" reports.
There are women among those pardoned; however, minors were rejected pardoning, since they had been convicted for serious crimes, the "Georgia-Online" reports.
Most of those pardoned were convicted for thefts, the PIK-TV channel reports.