The Criminal Composition of Air Pollution in Georgia
Pollution of the atmospheric air is protected in the Criminal Code of Georgia by a dedicated norm — Article 295 — distinct from the provisions on pollution of water and the sea and applying precisely to impacts on the air. This page is about that one article: what conduct is criminal, which consequence activates which part, and where the real points of defence lie. The permit regimes and emission limits that govern everyday operations are set by separate environmental legislation; what Article 295 defines is the boundary of criminal liability itself, and it is that boundary this page sets out in detail.
The Basic Composition and Its Sanction
The first part of the article regulates two alternative forms of conduct: the emission of harmful substances into the atmospheric air, or the breach of the operating rules of a purification installation, a structure or another object — on condition that the conduct caused a significant deterioration of atmospheric air quality. The consequential element is decisive here: emission or rule-breach cases are almost always contestable in terms of measurement and assessment, and it is the establishment of significant deterioration that determines whether the case falls within this article at all. The sanction under the first part is a fine, corrective labour for a term of up to one year, or imprisonment for a term of up to two years, with deprivation of the right to hold an official position or carry out activity for a term of up to three years or without it. Within a single article, therefore, the case can range from a fine to actual imprisonment depending on the circumstances and the quality of the defence. The additional penalty — deprivation of the right to hold a position or carry out activity — has its own practical weight: it can close the door on industrial or managerial functions and remain a lasting consequence for the business long after the main sentence has been served. For emitting enterprises and operators of boilers and purification installations this means that emission and safety issues belong, in terms of sanctions risk, not to the technical but to the criminal category.