Influence on Witnesses — Article 372 and the Protection of Participants
Article 372 of the Criminal Code of Georgia protects the participants of a criminal process — the person to be interrogated, the witness, the victim, the expert and the interpreter — from unlawful influence directed against them. The norm protects the integrity of the process: testimony, conclusions and translations must be free, and whoever restricts that freedom — through persuasion, bribery or coercion — answers before the state. At the same time, this charge often rests on entangled factual circumstances, which is exactly why precise legal analysis is decisive in such a case. This page explains the content of the article and every penalty it provides.
Elements of the Offense — Two Forms, Four Levels
The first part of the article establishes liability for an appeal to, or the persuasion of, a person to be interrogated, a witness, a victim, an expert or an interpreter — respectively, to provide false information or false testimony, or to give a false conclusion, or to refuse to provide information or testimony, or to translate incorrectly, or to alter the information, testimony or conclusion they provided. The second part is stricter: the bribery or coercion of the same persons for the same purposes, where it is coupled with the offer of any kind of property benefit to them or their close relatives, or with a threat of murder, violence, damage to or destruction of property, or another threat. The third part covers a second-part act committed with violence, and the fourth part — the same act that is dangerous to life or health. From this structure the main task of the defense also becomes clear: first it must be established whether there was influence at all; then — in which form it was carried out, as an appeal and persuasion or as bribery and coercion; and finally — whether it was accompanied by violence or by danger to life and health. Each step rests on separate evidence, and the failure of any one step changes the entire construction of the charges.