War Crimes – Articles 411, 412 and 413: What These Norms Cover
Articles 411, 412 and 413 of the Criminal Code of Georgia establish liability for violations of the norms of international humanitarian law during armed conflict. These norms cover both international and non-international armed conflicts and protect persons who do not take part in hostilities – the civilian population, the wounded, the sick, medical and religious personnel, prisoners of war.
War crimes cases are among the most complex criminal cases: they are connected with the norms of international law, historical context and voluminous factual material. The prosecution in such cases relies on a wide web of episodes, and the defense's task is to unpick each episode separately – who acted, where, when and in what circumstances.
Article 411 – Deliberate Violation of the Norms of Humanitarian Law
Part 1 of Article 411 covers the deliberate violation of the norms of international humanitarian law during armed conflict, in particular: attacks on the civilian population or civilians; indiscriminate attacks where it is known that they will cause casualties among the civilian population or damage civilian objects; attacks on a person who has ceased to take part in hostilities; improper use of a protective sign resulting in death or serious physical injury; deportation and transfer of the population; apartheid and other inhumane acts based on racial discrimination; attacks on cultural heritage.
Part 2 records graver forms – against persons who do not take part in hostilities or lack means of defense, as well as the wounded, the sick, medical and religious personnel, prisoners of war: deliberate killing, torture or other inhumane treatment, taking hostages, deportation, arbitrary and large-scale destruction or appropriation of property.
Articles 412 and 413 – the Remaining Forms
Article 412 concerns the performance on a protected detained or otherwise liberty-deprived person of a medical procedure not indicated by his state of health and not in conformity with generally accepted medical standards, even with that person's consent – in particular, physical mutilation, medical or scientific experimentation, and the removal of an organ for transplantation.
Article 413 covers other violations not provided for by those articles: marauding – the appropriation of the property of a killed or wounded person during hostilities; the use of civilians to shield military operations; the use of universally prohibited weapons or methods; and other war crimes provided for by Georgia's international treaties.
Sanctions – Each Norm Separately
The penalties of these articles must be read separately:
- part 1 of Article 411 – deliberate violation of the norms of international humanitarian law during armed conflict – imprisonment for a term of ten to fifteen years;
- part 2 of Article 411 – the graver forms against persons not taking part in hostilities or lacking means of defense – imprisonment for a term of fifteen to twenty years or life imprisonment;
- Article 412 – violation by medical procedures – imprisonment for a term of eight to twelve years;
- Article 413 – other violations of the norms of international humanitarian law – imprisonment for a term of ten to twenty years.
As is clear, every norm provides for imprisonment only, and the grave forms of part 2 reach life imprisonment. The rules on individualization of punishment are defined by other norms of the Code.
Command Responsibility – the Note to the Chapter
For a crime provided for by this chapter, the commander or other leader of armed forces or their subunits participating in an armed conflict is also responsible where the crime was committed by the armed forces under his leadership or control and was caused by the commander's or corresponding leader's inaction. This means that liability may be imposed on a person who did not commit the crime himself – and precisely here one of the main aspects of the defense opens: whether the commander genuinely had control and the real ability to intervene.
The Defense's Tasks in War Crimes Cases
The central questions of the defense are: the qualification of the act – under which article and part the case proceeds; intent – the aim of violating the norm of humanitarian law; the subject – who acted and in what status; and the substantiation of the episode – whether the case materials genuinely connect the accused with concrete facts. In such cases the volume of evidence is large, and each document requires separate consideration.
A separate question is international cooperation – such cases are often connected with the exchange of data with other states and international organizations, whose procedure is defined by the corresponding normative acts.
How a Lawyer Assists in Humanitarian Law Cases
The lawyers of Legal.ge work on complex criminal cases and will help you with the assessment of the qualification, the unpicking of episodes, the questions of command responsibility and the critical analysis of evidence. In such cases experience and precision are decisive – the penalty ranges from ten years of imprisonment up to life.