The Elements of the Offence and the Subject
Article 320 of the Criminal Code governs the disclosure of state secrets. Under its first part, the offence is the intentional disclosure of a state secret, or disclosure by a person who knew the secret because of their official position or to whom it was entrusted — provided the act bears no signs of the conduct connected with state treason and espionage that other provisions of the Code cover.
The two forms of the composition differ in their subjective side: the first is intentional disclosure, while the second is disclosure by a person who possessed the secret through official position or entrustment. For the defence this distinction is fundamental: the second form does not demand the same kind of intent — the case turns on awareness and the boundaries of official duty, and it is precisely there that the line between lawful transmission and violation is drawn.
Penalties by Separate Parts
An act committed under the first part is punished by deprivation of liberty for a term of three to five years, with deprivation of the right to hold a position or to conduct activity for a term of up to three years. Under the second part, the same act that has caused a grave consequence for the interests of Georgia is punished by deprivation of liberty for a term of five to eight years with the same accessory measure.
Both penalty frames must be presented separately, because a grave consequence is a fact to be established on its own: it requires a causal connection with the disclosed information. Where the prosecution builds on the second part and the consequence is not proved, the qualification remains within the first part.
The Boundaries of the Secret and the Qualification
The concept of a state secret is defined by special legislation: information can be a state secret only where it is officially included in the list of secrets and carries an appropriately assigned classification mark. One direction of the defence is precisely this audit: if the disclosed material does not figure in the list, or if its classification was assigned through a violated procedure, the object of the offence simply does not exist.
The second direction is the verification of the circle of subjects: the person must have had lawful access to the secret — official position or entrustment. Where the person acquired the information from an impartial source or from open materials, the composition of Article 320 cannot arise. The remaining boundary — separation from state treason and espionage — is drawn through the purpose of the intent: signs of transmission in favour of a foreign state activate other, graver provisions of the Code.
In practice this means that the defence reconstructs the person's official functions in detail: what their competence was, whether the material was directly accessible to them or only fragmentarily, how the administration explained the secrecy regime to them and whether a corresponding undertaking was signed. It is precisely these details that determine whether, at the moment of disclosure, the person was a lawful holder of the secret or merely an informed witness.
Practical Aspects of the Defence
In this category of cases the bulk of the evidence is documentary: access logs, correspondence, technical surveillance materials. The task of the defence is to show how and from where the information reached the accused person, who classified it and by what procedure, and how far its distribution was actually restricted.
A separate phase is expert examination: how far the disclosed data correspond to the material declared secret, and whether any damage can be established from them at all. Without an expert assessment of the grave consequence, the qualification under the second part remains fragile — and its demolition is a defence objective.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who can be the subject of this offence?
A person who knew the secret through official position or through entrustment — that is, a person with lawful access (Article 320, part 1). Distributing information obtained from open sources does not fall under this article.
What penalty threatens?
The basic composition — deprivation of liberty for three to five years with deprivation of the right to hold a position or conduct activity for up to three years; with a grave consequence — five to eight years.
How is a state secret determined?
Only information classified as secret by the procedure established by legislation and included in the respective list. Material without a classification mark, or classified through a violated procedure, is not a secret in this sense.
What is the main direction of the defence?
Three: the audit of the lawfulness of the classification, the verification of the source of access, and the critique of the causal link to a grave consequence. Each of them directly changes the qualification.
How We Help on Legal.ge
The lawyers of Legal.ge conduct state secrets disclosure cases with a systematic documentary approach: verification of the lawfulness of classification, reconstruction of the sources of access, requests for expert examinations and critique of the conclusion on grave consequences. We protect the accused person's rights at every stage of the investigation and prepare a complete defence version. Contact us — we will discuss your situation confidentially.