The Legal Issues Committee discussed with the II reading the Draft Code of Administrative Offenses envisaging the tougher sanctions for carrying melee weapons, namely, the carrying of the melee weapons in the street, yard, at the stadium, in the square, park, educational institution, Court, airport, movie and theatre, bus and railway stations and other public gathering areas shall be subject to the penalty increased from 200 to 500 GEL and confiscation of the weapon.

The sanctions include not only the fines but the recurrence shall entail criminal liability instead of the current administrative. The term “carrying the melee weapons” implies also the availability of the circumstance when a person holds the melee weapon with the purpose of immediate use. Pursuant to the current Code, the hereof term implies only the circumstance when a person holds a weapon in his/her hands, affixed on his/her body or hidden in the clothes.

As the reporter, and Deputy Interior Minister, Alexander Darakhvelidze elucidated, the practice revealed the gaps and the failure of efficiency, thus, the Code needs to be amended.

“Per the statistical data for January-September, 2022, 147 cases of the attempt of murder or the facts of the murder, 166 cases of deliberate health damage and 130 facts of light damage have been registered. If we sum up all the hereof crimes, knives have been used in 35% of cases, including 53% of cases when the use of knives caused death. Hence, we acknowledge the failure of the current regulations to have a preventive effect for graver crimes”, - he stated.