sozar subari - IPN

Prison Minister Sozar Subari. (Interpressnews.)

TBILISI, DFWatch — The Prison Minister says the number of prisoners that will be released under a new law on amnesty, will increase from 3 000 to 5 000.

About 3 000 prisoners are already released, Prison Minister Sozar Subari told TV9 yesterday. The rest will leave jail within ten days.

The process is moving fast, he said; about 500 prisoners are released per day.

“As soon as prisoners released under the amnesty law have left, the courts will start reviewing the other cases of prisoners whose sentences will be reduced,” the minister said.


The new government started working on an amnesty law after the parliamentary election. The draft of the new law went through a long process of reviews and changes. The president refused to sign the law, which in his opinion will set free spies and criminals, and vetoed it.

But the majority in parliament managed to overcome his veto and bring the law into force in mid-January. The amnesty applies to more than 18 000 prisoners. At first, it was believed that about 3 000 prisoners would be released.