Prosecution to Have the Option of Concealing Witness Identities

The decision to restrict the identification of a person participating in an operative-investigative measure or a covert investigative action will be made by the prosecutor, with the consent of the Prosecutor General or their deputy.

According to the draft law, the prosecution will ensure that the identity is concealed in all documents, materials, and other procedural actions reflecting the investigative action, in such a way as to limit the possibility of identifying and recognizing the person's identity. The person's identity will be accessible to the judge at all stages of the proceedings.

The amendments regulate the rules for exchanging evidence between parties. Specifically, if a decision is made to conceal the identity of a person participating in an operative-investigative measure or a covert investigative action who cooperates with the investigation, the defense will receive all evidence related to investigative and procedural actions in a form that prevents the identification or recognition of the person's identity. Such a person will be questioned as a witness remotely, in a way that prevents the defense from identifying or recognizing them.

The restriction of a person's identification can be applied indefinitely. The prosecutor can lift the restriction at any stage of the case, with the consent of the Prosecutor General or their deputy.

The authors of the draft law explain the necessity of the changes by the "need to refine regulations ensuring the protection of individuals cooperating with investigative bodies and the principle of confidentiality of their activities."

"It is advisable to introduce such legislative norms that, on the one hand, will contribute to limiting the disclosure of the identity of a person involved in covert investigative actions to protect their life, health, and the safety of persons associated with them, and on the other hand, will increase the degree of confidentiality of the process of cooperation with the investigation and minimize the disclosure of the identity of cooperating persons," we read in the explanatory note.

Lawyers believe that the Georgian Dream’s goal is to protect false witnesses who give false testimonies, including in politically motivated cases.

"Georgian Dream is making the legislation even more draconian and trying to block all spaces where it is possible to reach out to the public, to demonstrate how unfairly the deliberations on the cases brought by them are proceeding. These changes are a continuation of this line. They will try to protect witnesses who give false testimony, who are exposed as liars by the defense, who come in politically motivated cases, against demonstrators, with this provision and say, this witness is a person participating in an operative-investigative measure, therefore their identity should not be disclosed," says lawyer Beka Basilaia.

Lawyer Goga Khatiashvili notes that the initiated legislative changes violate the principle of adversarialism and equality of parties in court.

"In fact, a court decision can be based on evidence that the defense has not properly investigated and does not know the identity of such a witness," says Khatiashvili. He calls Georgian Dream's argument that limiting the disclosure of a person involved in covert investigative actions serves the purpose of protecting their life and health incomprehensible – "when special protection measures exist, why would their use not be sufficient to ensure the safety of a participant in the process."