Life sentence prisoners can apply for pardon after serving 20 years

The prisoners serving life sentences may re-apply for pardon every year now, instead of every five years allowed earlier.

Head of the Presidential Administration’s Department for Pardon Affairs Oleksandr Bukalov said this in an interview with Human Rights Information Centre journalist Iryna Vyrtosu for the ZN.UA Ukrainian news outlet.

He notes that the Department and the Commission for Pardon Affairs primarily focus on the committed offense, use of violence while committing the offense, and the record of convictions.

Pardon is usually granted to the people, who committed involuntary offences, or committed offences by coincidence.

The pardon may also be reasoned by the age (very young people or the elderly), and presence of children, who have nobody to look after them. In addition, the circumstances of offences and behavior after them are scrutinized.

“Let me draw your attention to the fact that most cases of presidential clemency mean not even the immediate release from prison, but only reduction in sentence,” Bukalov says.

Petitions for pardon are not considered in case of committing violent crimes, for example, in case of rape.

The prisoners serving life sentences can now re-apply for pardon not once in five years, but every year. However, this applies only to those, who have served 20 years of their sentence (there are about 20 such people in Ukraine). The MPs are now considering the opportunity to give the life convicts the right to apply for pardon after serving 15 years in prison (there are about 400 such people in Ukraine). It will be perhaps the only opportunity to escape for them, as the legislation does not provide for release on parole for life convicts.

As a reminder, about 1,000 inmates were pardoned every year during the presidency of Leonid Kuchma and Viktor Yushchenko. In 2011-2014, Viktor Yanukovych pardoned only 43 people. Petro Poroshenko signed the decree pardoning 20 people in June.