Dangerous Amendments to Criminal Code

Dangerous Amendments to Criminal Code

Georgian criminal law is becoming stricter. Nearly 100 amendments have been made and according to these changes there will soon be no humanity shown towards suspects and criminals, even juveniles. The changes have been made in conjunction with a statement by the President that there is to be no tolerance of criminals.

Lawyers, NGOs and the opposition are criticizing these changes. They think that the amendments should not be adopted; saying if the changes are implemented, lawyers and prisoners will not have any rights. The parliamentary opposition will also not back this project. The changes affect the whole of the criminal law and are concerned with prisoners, lawyers and prosecutors.

Lawyers are commenting that the articles that are unacceptable. “I want to talk about the negative points of these amendments, according to which, the defendant will be in much worse position. There will be a public attorney service and the defendant won’t have right to choose the lawyer himself. The police won’t be obliged to follow the law (Article 145). According to current law, if somebody breaks a particular law, he should be fired. According to Article 70, it is up to the investigator whether to question a suspect or not. It means that defendants do not have the possibility of defending themselves. According to Article 84, a lawyer does not have the right to read the case material until someone is interrogated. This means that if the person is not questioned, the lawyer can’t read the case. According to Article 202, the judge, investigator or the prosecutor, won’t be punished for violating procedural norms. This draft has been written by the general prosecutor and simply defends their own rights and interests”, says Otar Kakhidze, a representative of the ‘Young Lawyers Association’.
  
The parliamentary opposition has made the same complaints. Manana Nachkebia talks about the lack of compliance of the law with the European Convention and wants the law to be changed. “For example, the judge can’t make a decision without the prosecutor’s agreement. It means that the law will be implemented not by the judge, but by the prosecutor. This is a violation of the Constitution. The changes are limiting rights of defendants. If the cases decided in court aren’t objective, civil rights are being violated. I have complaints about the oral law – this means that the judge can make a decision without both sides in attendance. This is a violation of Article 6 of the European Convention. According to the law, if one side cannot attend the trial, they must produce a medical document 24 hours before the court case starts – or suffer an administrative penalty. However, a disruptive incident could occur 4 or 6 hours before. What can the people do? We are against all of this.”

According to lawyers, they themselves will suffer bad consequences. “It is impossible; a decision made in the first instance of the court is enforced and there is no place for lawyers in any of this. Article 50 does not allow any tolerance for those who are underage. We can’t adopt this law”, says one lawyer, Irma Chkadua.

In addition to the changes, MPs do not like the fact that the law has been changed so many times within such a short period. MP Giorgi Tsagareishvili states: “It is not one or two page changes, nearly seventy articles have been changed. It is very difficult to adopt so many changes and follow them. Neither Lawyers, judges nor investigators will adjust to the changes. It is especially difficult to implement with regards to health and people’s lives.”

The parliamentary majority only agrees with them in part. According to Nika Gvaramia, Head of the Legal Issues Committee within Parliament, the draft is for the most part acceptable but there are still some mistakes in it. The Parliament is currently working on the legal reform project and further discussions are planned for next week.

Eka Gulua