At a parliamentary session, which reconvened after summer recess, on September 8 lawmakers from the ruling party brushed off criticism over preterm release of four former Interior Ministry officials, convicted for Sandro Girgvliani murder case, and said the preterm release was done in line with law.

The murder case of 28-year-old Girgvliani has turned into the key political issue in 2006 and since then it reemerges time after time in the country’s politics, because of persisting allegations that the investigation covered up possible links of other Interior Ministry officials, as well as of wife of Interior Minister, Vano Merabishvili, to this murder case.

The preterm release of four men last week triggered criticism from both the parliamentary and non-parliamentary opposition groups. MP Giorgi Akhvlediani of Christian-Democratic Movement, part of parliamentary minority group, said at the parliamentary session on September 8, that the four men’s preterm release was “negligence of public opinion”, which might become a reason of “a new wave of public discontent”.

The lawmakers from the ruling majority, however, claimed that the four former Interior Ministry officials were released through observing the law, as they had already served part – 3.5 years - of their jail term for inflicting injuries that resulted in Girgvliani’s death.

The four men were among those 388 convicts, whose imprisonment verdicts were replaced with probation terms. The measure applied to them on the grounds that they cooperated with investigation and committed no wrongdoing during their term in prison and already served part of their jail term, according to the Ministry of Penitentiary and Probation.

“Girgvliani’s murder is a very grave offence but I think that these persons have already been punished and it is inadmissible to speculate with this fact; the law is equal for everybody,” MP Eka Kherkheulidze of the ruling party said.

Another lawmaker from the ruling party, Akaki Bobokhidze, said that “no matter of public opinion” the law should be observed and those four men should have been released if they were eligible for that measure.