Parliament passed with its third and final reading on June 12 a bill criminalizing “calls for violent actions.”
It says that “calls for violent actions made verbally, in written or through other forms of expression” aiming to cause “discord between racial, religious, national, ethnic, social, linguistic or other groups” and creating an “obvious, direct and substantive threat” should be punishable either with fines or community service from 200 to 400 hours.
The draft initially envisaged prison term for up two years for the offense, but imprisonment was replaced by fine or community service as a result of amendments made before the bill’s approval.
But if the offense results in loss of life or “other grave consequences” an offender will face imprisonment from two to five years.
If the same offense is committed by a legal entity, it will carry “liquidation” of such entity or depriving it the right to operate as a punishment, along with a financial penalty
The proposal, which has been amended for number of times before its approval, has caused concern of rights groups that, it might be misused by the authorities for restricting freedom of expression.
The proposal was part of a legislative amendments, which broaden the scope and range of offences and other activities linked to participation in illegal armed groups, and which also criminalizes traveling abroad and an attempt to go abroad for the purpose of terrorism.
“Sponsors of the bill [the Interior Ministry], parliamentary minority and majority groups worked over this bill and finally a consensus was achieved,” Davit Usupashvili, parliament speaker, said after the vote.
This post is also available in: ქართული (Georgian) Русский (Russian)