Two groups of Georgian judges participated in training sessions on the effective judicial review of corruption related crimes in Kakheti, Georgia on 17-18 December 2016. Criminal law judges from Kutaisi, Rustavi, Tbilisi City Courts and the Tbilisi Appeals Court highlighted the challenges they face at the crime qualification and procedural adjudication stages. A criminal law judge from Croatia overviewed modern challenges in crimes qualification, determined by the evolving shapes that the corruption related crimes take. The participants further discussed the related practice of the European Court of Human Rights and delved into issues of admissibility of evidence involving undercover agents, fair trial elements and means for ensuring the equality of arms, the presumption of innocence and state agents’ duties in high-profile corruption cases heard by national courts.

These training sessions will be followed by a training module and a training of Georgian trainers to enable the High School of Justice to carry out the in-service training on corruption-related crimes on a regular basis.

The activity took place within the framework of the Council of Europe Project “Strengthening the capacity of the High School of Justice of Georgia”. This Project is funded by voluntary contributions of Bulgaria, Liechtenstein, Norway, Slovakia and Sweden to support the implementation of the Council of Europe Action plan for Georgia 2016-2019.