53 People Detained for Violent Crimes
By Gvantsa Gabekhadze
Thursday, May 17
The Georgian Ministry of Internal Affairs reports that 53 people have been detained for committing violent crimes in 2018. The figure is higher than it was last year.
Police have launched an investigation into violent crimes in more than 50 cases, the ministry says.
The Deputy Interior Minister of Georgia Natia Mezvrishvili said that out of the fifty-three detainees 39 have been detained for gender and sex crimes, 10 have been detained for crimes committed on grounds of sexual orientation and gender identity and four have been detained for crimes of discrimination on ethnic grounds.
Mezvrishvili claimed that the increased number of the violent crimes because of a raised awareness of the public and the law-enforcers about hate and violent crimes.
“The offenses committed on the grounds of gender expression or gender identity will be considered as circumstances which aggravate criminal liability,” she said.
Mezvrishvili said that the amendments to the Criminal Code of Georgia do not envisage separation of femicide "in order to avoid a discriminated law."
She announced said that the draft law has already been submitted to the government and it will presumably be sent to the parliament next week.
About a month ago the Georgian President Giorgi Margvelashvili temporarily suspended pardons for individuals convicted of violent crimes in the wake of the murder of a 25-year-old woman by her stepfather in front of her two children in central Tbilisi on April 13.
The man who committed the crime was pardoned by the president.
The president stated that he will continue pardoning of people convicted of violent crimes after the consultations with all agencies involved.
