At Tuesday’s session, the Government adopted the initiative to accept the opinion of the Ministry of Justice for an authentic interpretation of Article 11 of the Law on Pardon.

According to this opinion, in March 2016, the Constitutional Court revoked the 2009 Law on amending and supplementing the Law on Pardon but with the revocation of the 2009 law, the provision of Article 11 does not return into force.

The Law on Pardon was amended in 2009, when Article 11 was revoked without the possibility of pardon without proceedings, the Justice Ministry said.

This means that the President did not have, nor now has the legal opportunity to grant pardon without proceeding under that article and therefore all acts of pardoning by the President based on Article 11 of the Law on Pardon.