Reforms in The Ministry of Internal Affairs

Interior Minister Giorgi Gakharia said that reforms in the criminal police of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Georgia have not been conducted for many years, which affects the work being done.

"During the last 15-20 years, no such reforms have taken place in the investigative component and, in general, in the criminal police, which of course seriously affects the quality of police activity. This is a priority for us, and all should understand well that the reason and purpose of the reform to our investigation system is not the improvement of statistical data: our main goal and objective is quality improvement, "said Gakharia.

The work of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Georgian Prosecutor's Office in the investigative component has clearly failed; the most striking example of this is one of the most notorious criminal cases in the history of modern Georgia, namely, the brutal murder of two 16-year-old schoolchildren in December 2017.

As one of the main problems in the system, the minister highlighted the lack of a clear delimitation of powers and responsibilities between the police investigator and the prosecutor, who according to the law, performs the function of overseeing criminal proceedings.

Returning to the case of the schoolboy murder, the interim parliamentary commission of inquiry found out that mistakes had been made at the initial stage of the investigation. At the same time, the commission was never able to determine who was responsible for a substandard investigation.

"In recent years, both in practice and in accordance with the legislative framework, the investigator of the Ministry of Internal Affairs is in fact completely dependent on the prosecutor's activity, from the senior prosecutor, which in this part is a joint problem that we can solve, since it is impossible to increase responsibility and competence where some of the powers will not be more free and independent," Gakharia explained.

By Shawn Wayne