Ex-Pres.Saakashvili’s request for pardon “inconsistent” – Justice Minister

Rati Bregadze, the Justice Minister of Georgia, on Monday called “inconsistent” to the request of the currently imprisoned former President Mikheil Saakashvili to incumbent Salome Zourabichvili over his pardon. 

 

Engaged in a trial hearing over the 2007 anti-Government rally dispersal in Tbilisi and a raid in a then opposition-lining Imedi TV, Saakashvili claimed he did not want to ask Zourabichvili to pardon him, but added by the move the President had a “chance” not to “share responsibility” for his current imprisonment. 

 

In his comments, Bregadze said Saakashvili “does not admit to the crimes committed by him”.

 

“When a person asks for pardon, he must have understood and acknowledged the crime he had committed. Accordingly, this person does not admit to the committed crime, but tries to justify November 7 and also the brutal attack on the free media, where the equipment of the media outlet was broken, journalists were assaulted. When a person does not confess to a crime, it is completely unclear to me in what form he should be pardoned”, Bregadze said. 

 

In remarks on Saakashvili’s latest claims that he would take over the chairmanship of the Political Council of the UNM, the Minister said as a foreign citizen the third President had no right to get involved in domestic politics. 

 

Saakashvili, who currently holds Ukrainian citizenship, was arrested in Tbilisi in October 2021 on his clandestine return and is now serving his six-year-sentence for abuse of power while in office. Three other cases involving him are pending.