Ruling party head pledges further legal moves to address early marriage problem
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Irakli Kobakhidze, the head of the ruling Georgian Dream party, on Thursday pledged further legal amendments to respond to the early marriage problem across the country following the murder of a 14-year-old kidnapped and forced into a marriage earlier this month in eastern Georgia.
In his press comments, Kobakhidze said the issue “needed to be resolved”, and pointed to its “complex nature” considering the “sensitivity” of the topic.
The Telavi District Court in eastern Georgia on Monday sentenced the uncle and cousin of the man accused of the murder of Aitaj Shakhmarova to pretrial detention for failure to report the crime.
The ruling comes after the 27-year-old Asim Aslanov, who in the summer kidnapped and later killed the minor during her attempt to escape, was arrested and charged with murder and illegal possession of firearms.
The mother and uncle of Shakhmarova have also been arrested for forcing the minor into marriage and failing to report the crime.
Georgia’s public security management centre and the United Nations population fund on Wednesday signed an agreement on joint efforts to prevent early marriages and ensuring information campaigns over the societal problem, the country’s interior ministry said.
Georgian law enforcers have detained four individuals for kidnapping a girl in Georgia’s southeastern Gardabani municipality.
The Georgian Interior Ministry launched investigations into 175 cases of early marriages in 2019, just five cases less than in 2018.
The old fashioned norm of arranged or forced marriages could soon become a illegal if changes to Georgian law are approved, resulting in a maximum penalty of four years imprisonment.
The United Nations Population Fund on Friday held a meeting discussing the importance of accelerating national commitments to eliminate the practice of child marriage in Georgia through empowering adolescents and creating opportunities for their development.