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Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili pardons 156 prisoners

23 November 2009 14:02 (UTC +04:00)

Tbilisi. Nizami Mammadzadeh â€“ APA. Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili pardoned 156 prisoners. Most of them were pardoned on recommendation of Georgian patriarch, chairwoman of the Commission of Pardon Elena Tevdoradze told APA Georgian bureau. She said 100 of them would be released, but term of imprisonment of others would be cut.

Tevdoradze said the Commission of Pardon reviewed appeals of 157 prisoners and it rejected the appeals of those who were convicted for murder, rape, drug trafficking and other grave crimes. There are four women among the pardoned prisoners.

She said there were Azerbaijanis among the pardoned prisoners as well. â€œI canâ€™t give you statistics, but there are Azerbaijanis among the pardoned prisonersâ€.

She said the Commission was expected to meet again on the eve of New Year.

The Commission of Pardon held previous meeting in August and following that nearly 500 prisoners were released.