Opposition Calls for Abolishment of Plea Bargaining System

Opposition Republican Party leader Davit Usupashvili said on February 20 that the system of plea bargaining has destroyed the country”s judiciary and should “be immediately 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 court cases were settled with plea bargaining, and only four cases were actually tried after prosecutors filed indictment papers.

“These statistics mean that no trial was carried out on 1 000 cases, and only four cases where heard at courts. It means that everything was solved after a deal between a prosecutor and a suspect, and only in four cases was a judge able to take action,” Usupashvili added.

He said that the 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 the 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, [the 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.

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