Organization „Young Barristers“ responds to the amendments,that are to be carried in the Criminal Code of Georgia,which restricts jurors’ participation in the discussion of high-ranking officials criminal cases and considers this legislative initiative as necessary adjustment.
„Young Barristers“ lawyer, Anna Kiknadze states,that, according to the presented draft,the current legal regulation operating in the Criminal Procedure Code since September 2014,which allowed Tbilissi,Kutaisi and Batumi City Courts to discuss criminal cases of the officials ,who had previously held or are holding corresponding position specified in the 2nd article of the Law on “Conflict of Interest and Corruption in Civil Service’s ,with juror participation,should be cancelled. In accordance with the new regulation, jurors of the Civil Courts mentioned above, are authorized to discuss criminal cases of the officials stated in the 2nd article of the Law on “Conflict of Interest and Corruption in Civil Service’, only utill October 1,2016.
By „Young Barristers“ appraisal,amendments in the law should be adopted,as jurors are random selected people,invited to participate in the court discussion ,whose inner conviction refering the case may be influenced by media.Officials’ activities are frecuantly subject of different public groap discussions.Therefore, jurors are likely to be influenced by media opinion regarding particular case,or they may not be properly aware of the factual and legal circumstances of the case.This creates significant threat to the case and for jurors not to judge objectively and be guided by the results of public discussions.
Organization will also pay attention to the circumstance, that selection procedure of Jurors delays discussion of the criminal cases under juror’s jurisdiction.The court,very fracuantly, has to held additional sessions for selection procedure and this is much related to financial,human and time factors,which may couse violation of legislative terms,as a result of what,already submitted coercive measures are likely to be cancelled.Therefore,in this respect also it is very important,that amendments were implemented in the regulation.
In July 2014, „Young Barristers“ proposed State Constitutional Commission for the implementation of effective court governance and asked to discuss the issue of appropriatness of abolition of Jury Trial.Organization declares,that there is high risk,that in the process of implementation of the right to fair trial,jurors will not be able to submit duly substantiated verdicts and thus ignore the true mission of juditial system.Society, for the moment, is not sufficiently prepared to take the responsibility to verdict.There is a need for true judical reform,instead of the Jury Trial,the need for implementation of judicial reform in quick pace,the need that court came closer to European Experience.
For the record: according to the current law operating for now,if the charge consideres sentence to imprisonment,case is discussed by Jury Trial,exept when defendant makes a motion to discuss the case without jurors participation.Besides,full implementation of this institution has been delayd according to territorial units. On septemper 18 ,2014,The parliament of Georgia adopted the law,and delayed the full implementation of jury trial from the year of 2014 to October 1,2016. So far,according to the results for February 2015,Jury Trial has discussed 8 cases in total.
