Constitutional Court of Georgia received lawsuit against unconstitutionality of Criminal Code's Article on espionage

On August 3 the Constitutional Court of Georgia has registered the lawsuit on declaring unconstitutional Article 314 of the Criminal Code of Georgia ("espionage"). According to the authors of the lawsuit, the unclear expressions in the above article gave the Georgian authorities a right to arrest the photographers accused of espionage for Russia.

Photographers Georgy Abdaladze, Zurab Kurtsikidze and Irakli Gedenidze were arrested on July in the morning, all of them were charged with espionage for Russia. On July 22 the Tbilisi City Court found them guilty and decided a conditional sentence. The journalists were sentenced under Article 314 of the Criminal Code of Georgia.

According to the authors of the lawsuit, delivered to the Constitutional Court of Georgia on August 2, this article of the Criminal Code contradicts the fifth paragraph of Article 42 of the Constitution ("no one is responsible for an act which were not considered criminal at the time of its commitment"), Article 24 of the Constitution, which states that everyone has the right to freely receive and distribute information, and Article 7 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which obliges the authorities to ensure maximum precision, accuracy and clarity of the laws.

"You can provide someone with publicly available information, which has not been registered as "secret", and you might be accused of damaging the interests of the state," the "Agency for Legal and Judicial Information" quotes the authors of the lawsuit as saying.

The authors of the lawsuit are Lasha Tugushi, Editor-in-Chief of the newspaper "Resonance", Vakhtang Khmaladze, an expert on constitutional issues, and Alexander Baramidze, a lawyer, the radio "Freedom" reports.

The court session, which is to be held within nine months, will decide whether the lawsuit would be taken under consideration.