Human Rights Center presented midterm findings of the monitoring of the work of new department in the Chief Prosecutor’s Office of Georgia

On July 13, HRC held round table in the conference hall of the Human Rights House Tbilisi and presented the midterm findings of the monitoring of the work of the department investigating the offenses committed in the course of legal proceedings in the Chief Prosecutor’s Office of Georgia. 

Head of the department in the Chief Prosecutor’s Office Irakli Nadareishvili, representatives of the Supreme Court, Georgian Bar Association, Coalition for Independent and Transparent Judiciary participated in the round table. 

The midterm findings of the monitoring covered the following information: analysis of regulatory normative-legal base of the creation and work of the new department; review of the work of the department, principles and issues related with selecting relevant staff members and criteria to accept the cases for reinvestigation; information about the cases investigated by the department from the moment it was created; information about the category of cases to be considered/investigated by the department; statistic data about the investigated, resolved cases and acquitted convicts as a result of the work of the department, and more.

The midterm findings of the monitoring reveal problems in the work of the new department. For example, lack of qualification requirements towards the investigators and prosecutors in the acts regulating the work of the department and criteria for recruiting them in the department; high number of cases processed by the prosecutors and investigators of the department may affect effectiveness and results of the investigation; the department does not have criteria to accept or reject the cases in the normative acts or internal instructions that raises question: based on which criteria does the new department accept or rejects new cases for consideration?

HRC is implementing the project “Monitoring the Work of the New Department of the Chief Prosecutor’s Office” with the support of the Open Society Foundation since October 25, 2017, which aims to promote better work of the department.

The department to investigate the offences committed in the course of legal proceedings was set up in the chief prosecutor’s office of Georgia on February 13, 2015. It aims to investigate alleged crimes committed in the course of legal proceedings, inhuman and degrading treatment facts, cases of misappropriation of properties. 

Human Rights Center