14
GOGITIDZE AND OTHERS v. GEORGIA JUDGMENT
2. The 2005 Council of Europe Convention on Laundering, Search,
Seizure and Confiscation of the Proceeds from Crime and on the
Financing of Terrorism
61. In 2005 the Council of Europe adopted another, more
comprehensive, Convention on Laundering, Search, Seizure and
Confiscation of the Proceeds from Crime and on the Financing of Terrorism
(ETS No. 198). It entered into force in respect of Georgia on 1 May 2014.
62. Articles 3 and 5 of the 2005 Convention, in so far as relevant, state as
follows:
Article 3 – Confiscation measures
“4. Each Party shall adopt such legislative or other measures as may be necessary to
require that, in respect of a serious offence or offences as defined by national law, an
offender demonstrates the origin of alleged proceeds or other property liable to
confiscation to the extent that such a requirement is consistent with the principles of
its domestic law.”
Article 5 – Freezing, seizure and confiscation
“Each Party shall adopt such legislative and other measures as may be necessary to
ensure that the measures to freeze, seize and confiscate also encompass:
(a) the property into which the proceeds have been transformed or converted;
(b) property acquired from legitimate sources, if proceeds have been intermingled,
in whole or in part, with such property, up to the assessed value of the intermingled
proceeds;
(c) income or other benefits derived from proceeds, from property into which
proceeds of crime have been transformed or converted or from property with which
proceeds of crime have been intermingled, up to the assessed value of the
intermingled proceeds, in the same manner and to the same extent as proceeds.”
63. The Explanatory Report to the Convention of 2005 reaffirmed that:
“39. The definition of ‘confiscation’ was drafted in order to make it clear that, on
the one hand, the 1990 Convention only deals with criminal activities or acts
connected therewith, such as acts related to civil in rem actions and, on the other hand,
that differences in the organisation of the judicial systems and the rules of procedure
do not exclude the application of the 1990 Convention and this Convention. For
instance, the fact that confiscation in some states is not considered as a penal sanction
but as a security or other measure is irrelevant to the extent that the confiscation is
related to criminal activity. It is also irrelevant that confiscation might sometimes be
ordered by a judge who is, strictly speaking, not a criminal judge, as long as the
decision was taken by a judge.”
64. The Explanatory Report further stated that:
“71. Paragraph 4 of Article 3 requires Parties to provide the possibility for the
burden of proof to be reversed regarding the lawful origin of alleged proceeds or other
property liable to confiscation in serious offences. ...