On November 26, 1996, Parliament of Georgia debated a bill on changes and additions to the Criminal Code of Georgia. The main object of this bill was to bring the Criminal Code of Georgia into correspondence with the Constitution of Georgia. The question is, that paragraph II of article 15 of the Georgian Constitution says: "Capital punishment, before its full abolition, may be applied for the most grave crimes against life".
As to the Criminal Code in force, it specifies death penalty for 13 kinds of crimes, including almost ten, which are not directed against life. Therefore, the given bill, though not fully, still definitely has brought the Criminal Code into correspondence with the Constitution; not fully, because capital punishment is still provided for those crimes, which are not directed against life. Quite unexpectedly MPs debated not these changes, but the question of expediency of abolition of capital punishment. Most MPs considered, that abolition of capital punishment is unexpected in Georgia at present.
Below, we have provided some extracts from MPs' speeches:
Vakhtang Rcheulishvili - Generally, capital punishment should be abolished, it is a humane act. But at present our executive authority is not ready for it. We should not meet all the requirements of Eurocouncil without criticism.
Shalva Natelashvili - Abolition of capital punishment will induce conviction by Lynch law and people, whose crimes do not imply capital punishment, may also die.
David Zeikidze - At present, our society is not ready for abolition of capital punishment.
Levan Tediashvili - Imagine the state of a father, whose son has been killed. We should not play humanism today. Capital punishment should exist by all means, since its abolition the number of crimes will increase.
Alexander Djibladze - If a state exists, capital punishment should also exist. Let's argue that the State has no right to sentence a person to capital punishment.
Vitali Khazaradze - The great importance of common prevention should be taken into account, that's why it is impossible to abolish capital punishment.
Guram Sharadze - On the one hand, abolition of capital punishment is one of the supreme principles of humanism, on the other hand, a chaos created on our country does not give us the possibility for it.
Dali Abashidze - We should allow some time for final resolution of the debate on death penalty. I can not say anything in favour of any side.
Different positions were also expressed, but we do not pay specific attention to them here, because, firstly, the previous materials mainly give the opinions of those MPs, who support abolition of capital punishment, and secondly, those MPs, who oppose abolition of capital punishment, won a victory at this session of Parliament. Even those limited changes provided by the bill and implied to bring the Criminal Code into correspondence with the Georgian Constitution, were not put to the vote. After the discussion this question was put off for a definite time, which made it clear, that Parliament of Georgia is not ready to abolish death penalty.
Generally, it is obvious that Georgian Parliament has not even considered abolishing
capital punishment in the nearest future. If it were not so, in the second year of its activity it should have submitted this question for deliberation. As we have already noted, Georgian Parliament has proved unprepared even for these limited changes.
Still, we are satisfied that Georgian mass media communications discuss the question of abolition of capital punishment. Georgian citizens and organizations increasingly support abolition of capital punishment. On November 22, 1996 newspaper Alia published the results of the sociological inquiry, according to which among 500 respondents 50,6% supports the existence of capital punishment, 49,4% is against it. The number of the supporters and the opponents has converged. We are glad that our campaign has contributed to such public opinion and hope, that it will finally win a victory.
Gela Nikolaishvili
P.S. Meanwhile, the number of individuals sentenced to death in Georgia is increasing. On November 19, 1996, the Supreme Court of Georgia sentenced to death Vakhtang (Loti) Kobalia ( the commander of ex-president Gamsakhurdia's armed forces ), in some days the Supreme Court sentenced to death David Otiashvili (nickname Machakhela), the head of the guerrilla organization Mkhedrioni in the Kakheti Region.