Justice Minister-designate Zurab Adeishvili told lawmakers on October 30 that liberalization of the criminal code would be one of his priorities.

As Justice Minister, Adeishvili will also be in charge of the General Prosecutor’s Office, which has been merged with the Justice Ministry as a result of constitutional amendments earlier this month. Adeishvili served as chief prosecutor before becoming the head of the President’s Administration in January 2008.

“New approaches are needed,” Adeishvili told lawmakers at a session of the parliamentary committee for legal affairs. “First of all, there should be a liberal criminal code. I think that in most cases, our approaches should be liberal and our experience of recent years has demonstrated this.”

He also told the lawmakers that the protection of private property should be a priority and “the draft constitutional amendment, which is now being developed, should be approved, as it will become an additional guarantee of private property rights.”