The Speaker of the Parliament, David Usupashvili publicly signed the Law on “Amnesty” at the briefing in the Public Service Hall. Upon signing the Law, the Speaker exercised the right, imposed under the Article 68 of the Constitution of Georgia, according to which, if the President, within the established term, fails to promulgate the law, adopted by the Parliament, the Speaker of the Parliament has the authority to sign and publish thereof.
The Parliament adopted the Law on Amnesty on December 21, 2012, though, the President did not sign it and conveyed back to the Parliament with the motivated remarks. The Parliament has not taken the remarks into account, voted for the initial edition of the Law on December 28 and adopted with 91 votes against 24, thus overcame the veto.
“It was the first time in history of Georgia, when the Parliament overcame the veto with the majority of votes, established under the Constitution”, - the Speaker stated. According to him, the President had the opportunity to sign the draft law from December 28 until last night at 00h00 and the thousands of the prisoners, looking forward to enactment of this decision, will no longer be in waiting regime, as well as their family members and friends, though the President refused to do it. “Despite the fact that I have stated immediately after overcoming the veto that if the President did not sign the Law, I would exercise the right and sign it, thus the Law would enter into force in any way and the President knew about it but still he decided to protract vague situation for these people. I had the conversation with the President the day before yesterday and he once again confirmed that he was not going to sign the Law”, - he stated. Mr. Usupashvili noted that this Law entailed an excitement amongst public and it was natural inasmuch as the Law concerns a very sensitive sphere. He also spoke about the development and adoption process. “The Law concerns release of prisoners, who have been serving a long time. The development process itself had the shortcomings but they are too far from the problems in justice. Thus, the new Government, the Parliament, fulfilled the promise and stated that it would be eliminated. It conditioned such wide-scale amnesty”, - he stated.
As he elucidated, persons shall be fairly sentenced for their crime and the conditions in prison shall be close to humanity and dignity.

The Speaker called upon the people, to which the Law applies, to make conclusions: “I would like to address the people, to which this law applies, to make the right conclusions. They shall do everything to continue normal life, return to society as full-fledged members, and we will do everything to ease their re-socialization. They need our support after they are released”. Mr. Usupashvili called upon the law-enforcement bodies to attach particular attention to this issue to help the released prisoners. According to him, it is a particular event that up to 200 citizens will be released under this law, who were persecuted on the political ground. “Their existence is demonstration that people have been persecuted on the political ground for years. Thus, the Parliament, the new Government, have made the responsible decision and release these people”, - he noted. According to him, after signing the law, it will be immediately submitted to the Legislative Herald for promulgation and will be enter into force today at 00h00. As he stated, the persons with the status of political prisoner will leave the jails tomorrow, and as to other prisoners, consideration of their cases will take more procedures, though all instances are mobilized and everyone will have the possibility to enjoy this right during 2 months.
“Signing the Law, I endorse that I personally and the new Government assume responsibility to publish this act. We believe that everyone, including our released citizens, will have responsibility as well towards this issue and it will become the act of consolidation and freedom of our society”, - he stated.