UN experts urge Georgia to seek alternatives to imprisonment

Following their visit to Georgia, the members of the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detentions offer to apply, wherever possible, measures of freedom restriction and punishment, alternative to imprisonment, based on the principle of proportionality.

The members of the Working Group visited 11 prisons and other detention facilities in Tbilisi, Kutaisi and Batumi; they met state officials, civil activists, detainees and convicts. In particular, they managed to talk to 158 inmates.

"The information that we received confirms the viewpoint that detentions and arrests are used in the vast majority of situations under the cases that pass through the court," the "Georgia Online" quotes the statement of the Working Group.

The UN experts focused special attention on the procedure of plea bargaining as specified in the Georgian legislation. In particular, they expressed concern about the limited role and independence of judges in such cases.

They concluded that 99.9 percent of all Georgian defendants are found guilty of the criminal offences they are accused of. The share of acquittals makes the remaining 0.1 percent, the "Rosbalt" quotes the findings of the Working Group.

Along with that, the UN experts welcomed the legislative reforms in Georgia related to the improvement of the situation in the matters of liberty deprivation.