The Legal Issues Committee discussed, under an expedited procedure and in the first reading, amendments to the Penitentiary Code and supported the draft law.

According to the presenter, Deputy Minister of Justice of Georgia Giorgi Dgebuadze, the issue of incompatibility of positions held by employees of the Special Penitentiary Service will be regulated by the Law of Georgia “On Combating Corruption” rather than by the Penitentiary Code. In addition, decisions on certain matters will be made by the General Director of the Special Penitentiary Service instead of the Minister of Justice.

According to him, the “Penitentiary Code” and several legislative acts will no longer specifically refer to structural units of the Special Penitentiary Service by name. Furthermore, similarly to all subordinate normative acts related to the penitentiary sphere, the statutes of penitentiary institutions will be approved directly by the Minister of Justice without submission by the General Director of the Service.

Giorgi Dgebuadze stated that the Code also includes a number of terminological amendments. For example, the term “defender” will be replaced with the term “lawyer,” as provided for by the current Criminal Procedure Code, and other similar changes.

As the Deputy Minister of Justice noted, certain provisions of the Code specify deadlines for carrying out actions in terms of days, but do not clarify whether those days are working days or calendar days.

“Although there has been a uniform approach in practice regarding these deadlines, it was considered appropriate to clarify the issue. Consequently, in more than 20 articles of the Code, the relevant periods defined in days are being clarified according to the principle that deadlines connected with the performance of administrative official duties by employees will be considered working days, while in other cases they will be considered calendar days. At the same time, in certain cases, taking into account the nature of the deadline, the term will be specified in 24-hour periods, as established in practice. These clarifications will not worsen the legal status of defendants and convicted persons and are consistent with the practice of applying these deadlines within the Special Penitentiary Service”, - Giorgi Dgebuadze stated.