The pilot training on the Effective Review of Cybercrimes Module took place in Kakheti, Georgia on 8-9 April 2017. The training was conducted by the 4 judges who went through the Council of Europe experts’led training of trainers’ session completed in February 2017. Its purpose was to prepare the pool of Georgian trainers on the effective review of cybercrimes for the judicial training programme of the High School of Justice of Georgia.

Thus, 11 Judges from Khelvachauri, Tetritskaro, Gurjaani, Tbilisi City Courts and Tbilisi Appeals Court acquired knowledge related to the cryptocurrency, evidence derived from the IP address, the Budapest Convention on Cybercrime and how it applies in the Georgian criminal legislation.  The participants appreciated the timeliness of this support in the area of cybercrimes. In the words of one of participants “We now stand ready to pose legitimate questions to the parties about the means and methods of obtaining electronic evidence, something that sounded like a rocket science before”.

The activity was organised 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.