---
title: "Illegal Search Defense"
url: "https://legal.ge/en/service/crim-criminal-law-en/illegal-search-defense-en"
field: "Criminal Law"
description: "Victim of illegal police search? Challenge unlawful evidence and protect your rights with expert criminal defense lawyers on Legal.ge."
reviewed: "2026-07-09"
updated: "2026-10-14"
publisher: "legal.ge"
---

# Illegal Search Defense

> Source: legal.ge, https://legal.ge/en/service/crim-criminal-law-en/illegal-search-defense-en

Illegal search and seizure is a gross violation of citizen rights by law enforcement agencies. The Constitution of Georgia and the Criminal Procedure Code strictly define rules for conducting searches: a court order is required, or in cases of urgent necessity, reasonable suspicion followed by judicial validation. In practice, police often violate these procedures — conducting searches without grounds, failing to inform the person of their rights, not inviting neutral witnesses, or "planting" evidence. Illegally obtained evidence has no legal force and cannot be the basis for a guilty verdict. Legal.ge gives you access to lawyers specializing in identifying procedural violations who will help you invalidate the results of an illegal search.

## What Does Illegal Search Defense Service Cover?

This service focuses on restoring procedural justice. Lawyers offer:

-   **Search Protocol Analysis:** Detailed check if the protocol was drafted on-site, signed by attendees, and reflects reality.
-   **Urgent Necessity Assessment:** Determining if the police had real grounds to conduct a search without a court order. If urgency is not substantiated, the search is illegal.
-   **Evidence Exclusion:** Filing a motion in court to exclude items (weapons, drugs) obtained through illegal search as inadmissible evidence (the "fruit of the poisonous tree" doctrine).
-   **Filing Complaints:** Submitting complaints to the General Inspection and Prosecutor's Office regarding illegal police actions.

The full text is available on legal.ge after signing in: https://legal.ge/en/service/crim-criminal-law-en/illegal-search-defense-en

### Does a standalone „search and seizure“ article exist?

No. In the current Criminal Code such conduct qualifies as violation of the inviolability of the home or other property: unlawful entry against the possessor's will, unlawful search or another violating act is punished by a fine, corrective labour for up to two years, home arrest from six months to one year, or imprisonment for up to two years.

### What sanction threatens a search committed with violence or by a group?

An act committed with violence, threat of violence or causing significant damage is punished by a fine, home arrest of one to two years, or imprisonment of one to three years. Group commission, use of official position or a weapon, as well as repetition, are punished by imprisonment of two to five years with deprivation of the right to hold office or carry out activity for up to three years.

### How is dissemination of personal data on the internet assessed?

Unlawful use or dissemination of private-life information or personal data through the internet, a social network, mass broadcasting or another public statement that caused significant damage is punished by a fine, corrective labour for up to two years or imprisonment for up to four years; a mercenary or repeated commission by up to five years; commission by a person obliged to protect the data by four to seven years.

### Does handing information to investigators exempt from liability?

Partly yes. A person who handed the obtained or stored information to investigative bodies and thereby supplied information about a committed or expected other criminal act bears no criminal liability for obtaining or storing it under the first part of the relevant article; this exemption does not automatically extend to the remaining conduct.