“They are treacherous and malicious and are trying to make people as anxious as possible to the very end,” said Zurab Tsetskhladze, the father of protest detainee Zviad Tsetskhladze, while speaking about expectations surrounding possible pardons.

As Zurab Tsetskhladze stated on PalitraNews’ program "360 Degrees", in his view, a pardon will not apply to “prisoners of conscience,” because the necessary preconditions do not exist.

“A treacherous and malicious decision was made by the regime. They have made not only the families of prisoners of conscience anxious, but prisoners’ families in general. These families might not have been anxious for an entire year, but now they were forced to go through this anxiety in just one day. I think that if any [pardon act] has been issued, it should be published between 11 and 12 o’clock.

After the regime’s president made a statement that there would be a pardon on Epiphany, quite a lot of time has passed. I find it unlikely that they were unable to bring this issue to Bidzina Ivanishvili until now and are only coordinating it at this point. I think there is no debate going on now - it is simply malicious intent. They are treacherous and malicious and are trying to make people as anxious as possible to the very end. I don’t know why they enjoy this or why this is acceptable to them.

In reality, I think this [pardon] will not apply to prisoners of conscience, because the preconditions do not exist today - neither political preconditions nor the conditions that they themselves set for the prisoners. There has been no repentance or admission of guilt, and accordingly we do not expect these people to be pardoned in a way that would benefit them in any way. I think it is simply malicious intent - they will keep people anxious until the end of the day,” Zurab Tsetskhladze said.