Amendments to a law on combating organised crime and racketeering has been passed by the Georgian parliament.
Prepared by the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the amendment package specifies definitions of the terms: "criminal underworld”, "member of the criminal underworld”, "thieves-in-law”, and "criminal discussion”.
A ‘thief-in-law’ is a person who manages in any form and/or organises the activities of the criminal underworld or a certain group of criminal individuals.
‘Criminal discussions’ are assessments and evaluations of a situation between feuding criminal groups with the aim of resolving disputes in the criminal underworld.
Membership in the "criminal underworld” will now be punishable by imprisonment for 7 to 10 years. "Thieves-in-law” will be imprisoned for up to 15 years, while organisation or participation in "criminal discussion” – for seven to ten years.
Individuals informed about the activities of the "criminal underworld” and who support them will be imprisoned for 3 to 6 years. Those who appeal to "thieves-in-law” for "criminal discussion” will be imprisoned for 3 to 7 years.
The amendments to the law come in the wake of the recent arrest of four Georgian criminal bosses and 34 Georgian members of criminal groups in France and Greece on April 16-17 through cooperation with the Georgian Interior Ministry.
Law enforcement entities had been investigating the case for more than one year, according to the French media.