Life imprisonment or death penalty for drug trafficking in Abkhazia
By Nika Gamtsemlidze
Monday, April 8
The de facto government of Abkhazia supported a draft law about drug trafficking. According to the law, the punishment for drug distribution will be death or life imprisonment. The law was adopted in the field of criminal law at the session of the National Assembly of so-called Parliament of Abkhazia, April 4th.
Valery Agrba, Chairman of the Committee on State Legal Policy announced that the Law will come into force from the moment of publication, and the legislative norms will come into force from January 1, 2020.
The law was unanimously adopted in the second and final reading.
The law also abolishes the right to pardon and the rule of early release. Also, under the new law, driving a car while being under the drug influence is also considered a criminal offense and the driver will be fined with $9200.
The war fought in 1992-1993 had a huge impact on people’s lives in unrecognized Abkhazia and many turned to drugs as a result. The situation worsens because of the fact that people do not have enough information about what drug addiction can lead to.
Death Penalty in Georgia was completely abolished in 2000 when protocol No. 6 to the ECHR (European Convention on Human Rights) was signed, later Georgia adopted the Second Optional protocol to the ICCPR (International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.) The death penalty was replaced with life imprisonment.
In the early 90s, Article 13 of the Criminal Code of Georgia provided a death penalty for various severity of offenses. At that time, public opinion was in favor of a death penalty. Non-governmental organizations, free press and people of different backgrounds played an important role in shifting the public opinion against the law.
By their efforts, Georgia has gradually achieved public consensus about the abolition of the death penalty, which helped Georgia to become part of Council of Europe.
The de facto presidential elections in occupied Abkhazia will be held on July 21. Current De Facto leader, Raul Khajimba's authority will be concluded on September 25, 2019.
