23:00, 1 October 2010

Georgia introduces juries

Starting October 1, according to the adopted amendments to the Criminal Procedure Code, the country will introduce the institute of jurors, who will pass their final verdicts to defendants. The jury will comprise 12 persons and two substitutes.

The first sitting of jurors is scheduled on mid-November; initially, they will work in Tbilisi only and consider only grave crimes and murders; their verdict cannot be appealed against, other then if the procedure was broken.

Under the legislation, juries will pass verdicts on all cases, except those where their lives may be endangered, upon petition of the parties in trial and with the consent of the court, or in case a jury breaks the right of objective and fair trial, the "News-Georgia" reports.

On September 21, Zaza Meishvili, First Deputy Chairman of the Supreme Court of Georgia, said at a press conference that a verdict passed by the jury may be appealed against at the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), said the "Georgia-Online".

Let us remind you that juries in Georgia were introduced by the local parliament in October 2009.