Article 159: What This Law Protects and Who This Page Is For
Article 159 of the Criminal Code of Georgia protects the secrecy of your private communications. The text of the article covers private correspondence and postal shipments, recordings of conversations held by telephone or other technical means, and messages received or transmitted by telegraph, computer system, fax or other technical means. If you or a family member has been notified of a case opened under this article, this page explains what the norm itself actually says: which acts are criminal, what punishment each part carries, and which situations are expressly exempted. Everything here is grounded in the text of this article alone; questions it does not regulate are governed by other provisions of the Code.
In practice, cases under this article often concern opening, copying or spreading email correspondence, chat messages, or recordings of telephone conversations. That is why the first question a defense lawyer asks is precise qualification: which part of the article the charge relies on. The punishments differ significantly from part to part, and the defense strategy is built on exactly that difference.
What Conduct Is Criminal Under the First Part
The first part of the article criminalizes four forms of unlawful dealing with protected information, listed directly in the statutory text:
- unlawful obtaining of private correspondence or a postal shipment;
- unlawful opening of it;
- becoming acquainted with its content;
- unlawful storing of it.
The same part covers a recording of a conversation held by telephone or another technical means, and a message received or transmitted by telegraph, computer system, fax or other technical means. Pay close attention to one decisive element: the article prescribes punishment only for acts committed unlawfully. This element is stated directly in the text, and for the defense it is the central question — if access to the information occurred under a legal basis or permitted procedure, the elements of the offence under this article are not made out.
The Second Part: Use, Dissemination and Otherwise Making Available
The second part of the article addresses situations where protected information is not merely obtained or stored, but is subsequently used. Under the text, it is a crime to unlawfully use, disseminate, or otherwise make available private correspondence, a postal shipment, a recording of a telephone or other technical conversation, or a message received or transmitted by telegraph, computer system or fax. The difference from the first part is clear: the first part punishes access to the information, the second punishes what is done with it afterwards. The punishment for this part is stricter, and it is listed separately in the sanctions section below.