Georgian prosecutor’s office to hold simulated jury trials with US support
The project is implemented with the involvement of Georgian justice authorities, the US department of justice and the US bureau of international narcotics and law. Photo: posecutor general's office of Georgia.
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The prosecutor general’s office of Georgia will hold simulated jury trials with the support of the United States embassy, the state body announced on Tuesday.
The body said 10 university students around the country would participate in the trials, giving them an opportunity to see how jury trials work.
Photo: Prosecutor general's office of Georgia
At today’s opening ceremony of the project, deputy prosecutor general Giorgi Gabitashvili thanked the embassy for supporting the project and wished success to the participating students.
Gabitashvili also said his office would hold more events with “active involvement” of the civic sector to enable the public to receive “complete information” about jury trials and introduce them to the importance of civic obligations and their responsibility in justice enforcement.
Photo: Prosecutor general's office of Georgia
While delivering her address at the opening ceremony, Lena Owens, the legal advisor of the embassy’s department of justice, said participation of students as future field professionals in the project was of “great importance”.
The project is implemented with the involvement of Georgian justice authorities, the US department of justice and the US bureau of international narcotics and law.
Georgian jurors have convicted Zaza Murjikneli for the attempted murder of Georgian ex-colonel Dodo Gugeshashvili and the murder of her son, Grigol Gugeshashvili, on February 7, 2018.
A jury trial will decide the fate of Merab Kobiashvili, who was detained for murdering Tamaz Gortamashvili and injuring Gortamashvili’s friend, Davit Seturidze, in Georgia’s mountain resort town of Gudauri on February 16, 2020.
Gori District Court in eastern Georgia has began a trial regarding the high profile murder case of the Smith family in Georgia in the summer of last year. A verdict for the 19-year old shepherded Malkhaz Kobauri will be delivered by the jury, as the latter is accused of the murder of Ryan Smith, four-year-old Caleb Smith and the rape and murder of Lora Smith.
The Ministry of Justice plans to introduce twenty legislative reforms before the legislative body next year, Georgia’s Minister of Justice Thea Tsulukiani stated when answering the lawmakers’ questions today in Kutaisi Parliament.
Georgia’s Prosecutor General Irakli Shotadze on Monday discussed his office’s work for strengthening independence of the jury trial system with James Baker, the Director of the Institute of Security Policy and Law of the Syracuse University of the United States, and Andrew Horsfall, the Deputy Dean of the University’s Law School.