Law providing tougher punishment for domestic violence comes into force
Abusing a family member will become punishable by two years imprisonment instead of the current one year.Photo: N.Alavidze/Agenda.ge.
Tweet 
Share
A law drafted by the Georgian Interior Ministry has come into force today which makes the punishment for certain forms of domestic violence more severe.
The law also reads that should a restraining order be violated, an individual will face criminal charges.
There will be no warnings. If the restraining order is violated, the individual will face a criminal charge,” the ministry says.
A previous record of domestic violence will be regarded as an aggravated circumstance.
Abusing a family member will become punishable by two years in prison instead of the current one year.
The punishment will be more severe if the act of violence is committed in the presence of a minor.
If a murder, injury or inducement to suicide is motivated by gender, the sentence will be higher, the ministry reported.
More than a thousand people are victims of domestic violence in Georgia, with latest statistics showing the majority of cases are fuelled by alcohol and jealousy.
The Ministry of Internal Affairs of Georgia has drafted a bill which provides civil restrictions and tougher punishment for those convicted of sexual crimes against minors.
Georgia’s Interior Minister Giorgi Mgebrishvili is calling on all victims of domestic violence to speak out and seek help.
Georgia’s Minister of Internal Affairs Aleksandre Tchikaidze is pledging the country will intensify its efforts to stop domestic violence in Georgia.
Officers of the Shida Kartli Police Department have arrested a person identified only as I.S., born in 1992, for domestic violence against a minor.
16,820 individuals were charged in Georgia in 2018, which is a 6.5 per cent increase compared to 2017, the Georgian Chief Prosecutor’s Office says in its annual report presented in parliament.
The Georgian Interior Ministry has issued 5,399 restraining orders from January through June 2019. The rate exceeds the number of restraining orders issued in the same period last year - (3,292). Most of the restraining orders were issued in Tbilisi (2,655) which was followed by Imereti, Racha-Lechkumi, Kvemo Svaneti (563) and Kvemo Kartli (477).
Georgian President Salome Zurabishvii met with representatives of the public, local non-governmental and international organisations to discuss steps to be taken against domestic violence in the country.
Police have detained the former head of Patrol Police Department David Tsinaridze for domestic violence.
The government of Georgia says that it will continue an active awareness campaign and fight against domestic violence during the coronavirus pandemic, as the coronavirus poses a risk of an increase in domestic violence cases.
Police have detained a Latvian citizen in Georgia’s coastal city of Batumi for physical and psychological violence against his wife and failure to comply with the requirements of a restraining order.
Police have detained two Georgian citizens for domestic violence in the Gori and Kareli municipalities of Shida Kartli region. The crime is punishable by three years in prison.
Avtandil Kharadze, the ex-husband of the Parliament’s Human Rights Committee head, Sopo Kiladze has been charged with domestic violence.
Minister of Culture, Sport and Youth of Georgia Thea Tsulukiani has urged Beso Zanguri, an actor at the Rustaveli Theatre troupe in Tbilisi, to "immediately leave the theatre" following allegations of domestic abuse dating back 11 years and made against him by on Rustavi 2 channel on Monday.
Police identified 2,270 victims of domestic violence and 2,141 abusers in the first quarter of 2021 throughout Georgia, reports the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Georgia (MIA).
Georgia's internationally renowned theatre director Robert Sturua has come under criticism after comparing alleged revelations of domestic abuse involving an actor at Tbilisi's Rustaveli Theatre to "women starting 1937 [Soviet] repressions" on social media.