TBILISI, April 15 – Georgia’s opposition has asked the country’s president to pardon four jailed miners from the western town of Chiatura.
The appeal came from the opposition party For Georgia, led by exiled former Prime Minister Giorgi Gakharia. Speaking in parliament on Tuesday, MP Shalva Kereselidze said the party would send a formal petition to President Mikheil Kavelashvili as soon as the current session ends, asking for the pardon of detained miners Giorgi Neparidze, Merab Saralidze, Tengiz Gvelesiani and Archil Chumburidze.
Kereselidze said the miners’ release would be a political act of state importance aimed at easing tensions, rebuilding democratic stability and helping create public consensus. He tied the case to the deep economic troubles in Chiatura, a mono-industrial town where, he said, most residents depend on a single enterprise and alternative jobs are scarce. He also said more than 2,000 miners out of a workforce of 3,500 had been left without income.
According to the opposition lawmaker, the miners had been protesting continuously in Chiatura and at different state institutions over wages, labor safety and mining practices, but their demands were ignored. He said the detentions were linked to a sharp wave of social protest directed against Georgian Manganese and called on the government not to accuse the miners of anti-state activity or demand confessions from them.
The opposition framed the issue as part of a broader attempt to calm the political climate. For Georgia said pardoning the miners would be a step toward depolarization and genuine peace inside the country.
The ruling side did not reject the idea outright, but it offered no timetable and no direct commitment in the miners’ case. Later on Tuesday, parliamentary majority leader Irakli Kirtskhali said the authorities have always been inclined toward the “humane act” of pardons and suggested that President Kavelashvili would make such a decision when the time is right, as he had done before. He did not specify any dates and said the issue was sensitive.
Kirtskhali also said pardons are the president’s prerogative and that Georgian Dream would continue this policy carefully and prudently.
