October 2007; A competitive selection process for judges is conducted periodically by the High Council of Justice; training improved, salaries raised; Illegal decisions by judges were decriminalized by law; amendments to the Law on “Disciplinary administration of justice and disciplinary responsibilities of judges of common courts of Georgia” of 19 July 2007 make explicit that wrongful interpretation of the law based on intimate convictions of the judge cannot form the basis for disciplinary proceedings and the judge cannot be prosecuted for such conduct; On 10 October 2008, amendments to the Constitution of Georgia merged the Prosecution Service with the Ministry of Justice; a new Law on the Prosecution Service, adopted on 21 October 2008, incorporated the prosecution service in the Ministry of Justice; the Chief Prosecutor is nominated by the Minister of Justice and appointed by the President; The Prosecutor General issued Internal Guidelines dated 26 January 2007 promoting the application of non-custodial measures in particular bail; CPC article 159 holds that detention as a measure of restraint as a rule is not used towards seriously ill persons, minors, persons over a certain age (women 60 and men 65), women who are 12 or more weeks pregnant or have a baby (of up to one year), and also towards persons who Non-governmental sources: The prison population is steadily increasing. There are too many people on probation per probation officer, which limits the supervisory function of the probation service to the formal registration procedure. 71 Government: The number of persons in pre-trial detention amounts to 2.912. In the first nine months of 2009, the percentage of the cases in which pre-trial detention was applied was between 42 and 52 %. A/HRC/13/39/Add.6 Non-violent offenders be removed from confinement in pre-trial detention facilities, subject to noncustodial measures (i.e. guarantees to appear for trial, at any other stage of the judicial proceeding, and should occasion arise, for execution of the judgement) (i) and Recourse to pre-trial detention in the Criminal