TBILISI, November 29 (RAPSI) – The use of Nazi and communist symbols in public places and the erection or refusal to dismantle monuments to and bas-reliefs of totalitarian leaders in Georgia will be punishable with a fine of 1,000 lari (around $600).

According to the authors of the proposed amendments to the Georgian Freedom Charter and the Administrative Offences Code, the term “symbols of totalitarian communism” denotes symbols that reflect “a totalitarian communist regime noted for human rights violations, various forms of mass terror, hunger, deportations, torture and slave labor, persecution on ethnic or religious grounds, and infringements on the freedom of conscience.”

A special commission will be established to collect information about the use of Nazi and communist symbols in Georgia. It will also be responsible for making sure that there are no Nazi or communist symbols on “state property and the property of local government bodies, and that no religious buildings, monuments, bas reliefs, streets, squares, villages and towns bear the names that contain elements which can be perceived as the propaganda of the communist or Nazi ideologies or the names of totalitarian leaders.”

The Freedom Charter, which the Georgian parliament adopted in late May 2011, prohibits ex-Soviet security service staff and the top officials of the former Communist Party and its youth wing, the Komsomol, from holding public offices and bans the use of Nazi and communist symbols in public places. It also stipulates control over foreign funds transferred to the country.