Opposition Initiates Abolishment of Plea Bargaining System in the Republic of Georgia (2007) (excerpts related to Fair Trial (Right to a)) (English)
Tbilisi. 20 February’07, Civil Georgia - Opposition Republican Party leader Davit Usupashvili said on February 20 that system of plea bargaining has destroyed the country’s judiciary and it should “immediately be abolished.”
“This system represents the major reason why the judiciary actually does not exist in Georgia any longer,” Usupashvili said.
He said that during 2005 a total of 1 000 cases with plea bargaining have been filed to courts and only 4 cases were filed with conclusions of guilt by prosecutors.
“This statistics mean that no trial was carried out on 1 000 cases and only 4 cases where heard at courts. It means that everything was solved after a deal between a prosecutor and a suspect and only in 4 cases a judge was able to take actions,” Usupashvili added.
He said that plea bargaining system has “legalized state racketeering.” “In particular, this system has become a source of replenishing the budget, instead of being a tool for executing justice. ‘Justice of wealth’ is in force in Georgia. Those capable of paying money are able to buy freedom. A thief of millions will pay another million and is free, but those unable to pay are now in prison,” Usupashvili said. Usupashvili noted that plea bargaining system works only in countries with strong democracies.
“But we believe that this system should be immediately abolished in Georgia and we are initiating a relevant draft law in the Georgian Parliament,” Usupashvili said. The present practice of plea bargaining, which entered into forced in Georgia in 2004, has been criticized by the Council of Europe (CoE).
“In its present form [system of plea bargaining] – on the one hand allows some alleged offenders to use the proceeds of their crimes to buy their way out of prison and, on the other, risks being applied arbitrarily, abusively and even for political reasons,” the Parliamentary Assembly of Council of Europe said in its 2005 resolution on Georgia.