Chief prosecutor: 18% less people charged in 2020 than in 2019
Georgian Chief Prosecutor Irakli Shotadze has stated that despite the pandemic 2020 was a busy year for the Prosecutor’s Office. Photo: Chief Prosecutor’s Office.
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The Georgian Chief Prosecutor Irakli Shotadze has stated that 15,625 individuals were charged in 2020 by the Prosecutor’s Office of Georgia, while the figure stood at 19,114 in 2019.
The figure has dropped by 18.3%,” Shoradze stated earlier today.
4,633 of the 15,625 individuals were prosecuted for domestic violence.
He said that verdicts were delivered in 13,099 cases in 2020 and 63 per cent of the cases ended with a plea bargain.
Shotadze said that guilty verdicts were delivered for 195 minors last year, while 59.2 per cent of cases ended with a plea bargain.
The Georgian Prosecutor's Office has launched the use of artificial intelligence in the investigation process. Photo: Chief Prosecutpr's Office press service.
None of the minors charged were found innocent last year (while 10 minors were found innocent in 2019).
Jury trial was used for 26 cases in 2020, ‘ which is an increase compared to previous years,’ Shotadze said (in total jury trials have been used for 48 cases so far).
The Prosecutor’s Office said that thanks to the support of the US Embassy they have launched the IBM I2 digital analytical programme which allows the country’s law enforcement agencies to carry out a refined investigative analysis, detect needs in the investigation process and help inter-agency cooperation.
Members of opposition parties and their supporters are now holding a rally by the parliament building in central Tbilisi, protesting Irakli Shotadze’s possible re-election as prosecutor general.
Former Georgian Prosecutor General Irakli Shotadze, who resigned in 2018, has been selected among four shortlisted candidates for the same post by the Prosecutorial Council earlier today. Now the council will present Shotadze in parliament for a vote.
Former Georgian Prosecutor General Irakli Shotadze, who resigned in 2018, might take the post again as he is among the four candidates who were advanced through the selection process by the Prosecutorial Council earlier today.
Ruling party MPs Mamuka Mdinaradze and Giorgi Volski have promised to vote again for Irakli Shotadze, “a professional and a worthy man,” if he is selected as the country’s prosecutor general by the Prosecutorial Council in the coming months. Zaza Saralidze, father of deceased minor David Saralidze, whose son’s case became the reason for Shotadze’s resignation, says that Shotadze’s “return to the battlefield will be dignified.”
4,633 individuals were charged for domestic violence and crimes throughout Georgia in 2020, which is 5.4 per cent more compared to the previous year, Chief Prosecutor Irakli Shotadze said while presenting his body’s annual report today.
It is a “proven fact” that “millions were spent” from the Georgian state budget for “luxuries” for Mikheil Saakashvili, Prosecutor General Irakli Shotadze said on Friday in comments on charges against the imprisoned former President.
The Conference of Prosecutors in Georgia has elected three members of the 15-member Prosecutorial Council, the body tasked with selecting the country’s future Prosecutor Generals, the Prosecution Service of Georgia announced on Friday.