Actor Giorgi Giorganashvili who had been detained on drug charges, was released on bail on 14 July, after tens of protesters rallied in his support the previous day.
Tbilisi City Court released Giorganashvili’s on ₾20,000 ($8,400) bail. He claims he was illegally kept in custody for more than five months as ‘the police planted drugs on him’.
Giorganashvili, also known as Bakhala, was arrested on 29 January 2017 for ‘possessing buprenorphine’, an opioid used to treat opioid addiction, while travelling from western Georgia to Tbilisi.
The actor faces from 8–20 years in prison or a life sentence.
Giorganashvili has pleaded innocent, accusing the police of planting the drugs on him.
A rally to support Giorganashvili was held on 13 July in Tbilisi’s Dedaena Park, where supporters urged authorities to change legislation and decriminalise drug possession.
Searches without witnesses
Drug policy activists have claimed that a rule allowing courts to place a person in jail after hearing testimonies only from police, without requiring a third party to be present during the search, has to be amended.
‘As in many cases in recent months, the only witnesses [of Giorganashvili’s drug-examination] are police officers. After detaining Bakhala, they examined him at a place with no cameras and despite Giorgi’s demand to have a third party witness during the examination, they were the only ones who were present’, the organisers of the rally, White Noise Movement, a group of independent drug policy activists, said on 13 July.
On 6 June, a rap duo were arrested in Tbilisi and charged with illegally purchasing and holding especially large amounts of the recreational psychoactive drug MDMA. They claimed that the drugs were planted on them, and that they were arrested for a recent music video they released depicting a police officer as a dog. The police officials have denied the claim.
After widespread public backlash, Tbilisi CIty Court released them on bail, but the charges have not been dropped and the duo may still face life imprisonment.
As an alternative to what they describe as ‘draconial drug policy’, local rights organisations have proposed a bill to decriminalise possession of all drugs. The bill, was developed by Tbilisi-based advocacy group the National Drug Policy Platform, which consists of over 40 NGOs, and has been put before Georgia’s Parliament by the Parliamentary Health Committee. The core principle of the changes would be to move the country’s drug policy away from a criminal justice approach, treating drug use instead as a public health issue. The parliament is likely to consider the bill during the autumn plenary sessions.
Georgian opposition party Lelo has proposed decriminalising drug use, as part of a proposal to reorient the country’s drug policy from a criminal justice approach to a healthcare one.
The proposal was announced at a press briefing by Saba Buadze, the chair of Lelo’s Tbilisi bureau, on Wednesday. He suggested that the ‘drug epidemic’ in the country was caused by the ‘criminal indifference and complicity’ of the Georgian Dream government.
In their nine-step policy, Lelo proposed:
* Decri
Historically, international reports have referred to Georgia as one of the corridors for the transit of Afghan heroin towards Europe. Liberali tried to find out how Georgia is tackling drug trafficking and what has changed since 2012 under the Georgian dream government.
In September 2009, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime published a report on the spread of Afghan heroin around the world.
The report noted that seven tons of heroin reached Europe through Georgia each year. Hero
Georgian drug policy reform advocates have marked the anniversary of police raids on night clubs Bassiani and Café Gallery in the capital Tbilisi.
Recently formed advocacy group 12 May, named after the night of the raids, draped banners over bridges and on public spots in Tbilisi bearing anti-government messages. These included references to the raids, the country’s harsh drug policies, as well as ironic references to their environmental policy, alleged control over the media, and scandals
Georgia’s parliament has adopted a new law restricting cannabis use, five months after the Constitutional Court made consumption of the drug legal. Restrictions allow only those 21 or above to consume the drug and only at home.
The court ruled on 30 July that any punishment for consuming cannabis was unconstitutional.
Under the new law, people will not face even administrative punishments, such as fines, if police discover they have taken cannabis. However, the new regulations adopted by
Actor Giorgi Giorganashvili who had been detained on drug charges, was released on bail on 14 July, after tens of protesters rallied in his support the previous day.
