The Criminal Framework for Unlawful Detention in Georgia
Deprivation of liberty is the most strictly controlled power of the state, and when it is used contrary to law the case falls under two provisions of the Criminal Code of Georgia. The first and principal one is Article 147 — deliberately unlawful detention or arrest — a special offence created precisely for this conduct. The second is Article 333 — excess of official authority — the general norm covering situations where an official oversteps the limits of competence with a substantial violation of someone's rights. Drawing the boundary between these two articles is the central question of qualification: the special norm takes priority, but the factual circumstances often fit neither cleanly. It should also be noted that a civil claim for damages by the victim, and the judicial review of the lawfulness of a deprivation of liberty, run in a separate civil-procedural track; the subject of this page is criminal liability. Readers familiar with Anglo-American materials will recognise "false imprisonment" as a tort and "habeas corpus" as a remedy — in Georgia those are separate civil and procedural instruments, and the criminal anchor is Article 147.