Supreme Court of Georgia

Pretrial hearing was held at the Tbilisi City Court

Published: 10/27/2011

On October 26, 2011, pretrial hearing was conducted at the Tbilisi City Court on premeditated murder, committed in aggravating circumstances, and robbery case.
According to the Article 330, part 11 of the Criminal Procedural Code of Georgia, the jury trial court is in practice only at the Tbilisi City Court before October 1, 2012 and considers criminal cases committed under the Article 109 of the Criminal Code of Georgia, fallen within its territorial jurisdiction. Therefore, the case is submitted to the composition of the jury trial court for essential hearing. The sitting for selection of jurors is scheduled on November 7, 2011. This kind of court hearing is the first precedent in the history of the judiciary of Georgia and correspondingly, presents one of the important step in the court reform as well as in the process of democratic development of the country, as the society is involved in the implementation of justice and only the public decides the issue regarding the criminality or innocence of the accused.
Before the selecting setting of jurors, the judge, after hearing the opinions of the parties, by the principle of random selection establishes a list of candidates of jurors with not more than 100 persons from the common list of Georgian citizens, who have attained the age of 18. The candidate of a juror must possess the language of law, live in the territory included in the jurisdiction of the Tbilisi City Court, should not have a physical or mental disabilities that would prevent the jury duties. On the selection hearing, 12 jurors and at least 12 alternative jurors will be selected, by taking into consideration the opinion of parties, who will take part in the discussion of merits of a case and determine the verdict of guilty or non guilty.
Tbilisi City Court is prepared to meet the new system for implementation of justice. The number of moot court sessions and preparatory trainings will be held at court. Tbilisi City Court, as well as the whole society with a big responsibility and interest is looking forward for the jury trial court verdict, where a decision is made by people.