Presentation of Books, Regarding the Court Ethics, was held at the Supreme Court
July 31, 2008
On July 31, 2008, the presentation of books, regarding the court ethics, was held at the Supreme Court within the frameworks of ABA and the Supreme Court. This event was opened by Konstantine Kublashvili, the Chairman of the Supreme Court. He talked about the significances of court ethics. As Konstantine Kublashvili stated: “Even the fully improved and democratic law can’t guarantee independence and impartiality of a judge, if it’s not the personal demand. Besides expert of codes, judges have to perform great service for public with their style of life. The public has its opinion about independence and impartiality of judge pursuant to his/her action at court and out of the courts as well. Judges are indivisible parts of the system of justice and responsible to preserve the commensurate duty of judge and strengthen the confidence of the justice by the help of the above mentioned”.
The commentaries of court ethics had been worked out within the initiative and framework of Lawyers Association Rule of Law and the Supreme Court of Georgia.
The court ethics will give the additional chance to public to estimate the action of judge, which will increase the essence of court ethics for judges and for society as well.
Court ethics are the regulation of issues which are not directly envisaged by law, such as: judge action during the non-court action, in private life or public service and etc. These kind of problems are aroused in every democratic countries. Our court ethic meets the standards of Euro Council and UNDP.
The representatives of Georgian and foreign non-governmental organizations attended the presentation of books. At the end of the presentation the judges were granted with Ethic Codes.
Source: The Supreme Court of Georgia, July 2008
www.supremecourt.ge/News.aspx?sec_id=40&lang=2&news_id=413
Public Defender Calls for Probe into Newspaper ‘Intimidation’
July 31, 2008
Public Defender Sozar Subari has requested the prosecutor’s office in Batumi to probe into the alleged “intimidation” of journalists at the local weekly newspaper Batumelebi.
The newspaper, published in Batumi, Adjaran Autonomous Republic, said in a statement last week that it had received an e-mail, which said: “you will find him [one of the newspaper’s journalists] dead with the newspaper stuck in his mouth.”
Prior to the anonymous e-mail, the newspaper’s editor-in-chief, Eter Turadze, and another journalist were, they say, followed by unknown people. They say the surveillance was deliberately noticable, presumably so as to intimidate them.
The Public Defender’s Office said in a statement on July 31 that the incidents should be investigated by the Prosecutor’s Office as it believed they constituted intimidation.
Source: Civil.Ge Online Magazine, July 2008
www.civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=18864
Georgian Opposition Bails
July 26, 2008
It became known yesterday that Mikhail Kareli, former governor of Shida Kartli Region in Georgia and close advisor to former Georgian defense minister Irakly Okruashvili, has asked for political asylum in France. Nothing had been known of the fate of the politician, who is accused in Georgia of abuse of office, extortion and corruption, since last November, when he was released from custody on $140,000 bail and immediately disappeared.
The press was informed of Kareli’s whereabouts by opposition For a United Georgia party member Teona Tlashadze. The party was founded by Okruashvili and Tlashadze. Other sources say that Kareli applied for asylum on July 23. Okruashvili also lives in Paris as a political immigrant.
Kareli, like Okruashvili, began his career as a loyal supporter of Saakashvili. He aided Saakashvili in the Revolution of the Roses in 2003 and was awarded with the appointment to the governorship of Shida Kartli, bordering on South Ossetia, a year later, succeeding Okruashvili. After Okruashvili was dismissed and a number of his supporters were arrested in Gori in September of last year, Kareli told thousands at a protest meeting that “the law enforcement organs are fulfilling political orders.” He was dismissed from his post a few days later and arrested on September 23 (a few days before Okruashvili) in the Tbilisi airport as he prepared to board a flight to Europe.
Georgian authorities say they do not know how the former governor left the country. Since there was an international warrant for his arrest, he should have been arrested when he crossed any European border. Okruashvili’s resettlement in France followed the same course. Okruashvili’s lawyer, Eka Beselia, stated that Georgian authorities did not knowingly allow Kareli to flee to avoid imprisoning him. According to Beselia, he will be tried in absentia. The Georgian Foreign Ministry stated that it will demand Kareli’s extradition.
Source: Kommersant, July 2008
www.kommersant.com/p915647/r_527/Georgian_opposition/
Public Defender Under Fire from Ruling Party
July 16, 2008
The ruling party lawmakers attacked Public Defender, Sozar Subari, by criticizing him of “political bias” and “incompetence,” which, as they said, led “to discrediting” the ombudsman’s institution.
The criticism came after the Public Defender delivered his 2007 report on human rights record in the country at the parliamentary session on July 15.
Sozar Subari started his address with, what he called, deteriorating freedom of media. In this regard he recalled developments surrounding Imedi TV, in particular police raid on the television station on November 7, 2007, which resulted into smashing of the TV station’s equipment and physical abuse of journalists working there.
“No one has been held responsible for these inhuman acts against journalists and Imedi TV,” Subari said.
He then pointed out on the most recent developments surrounding Tbilisi-based Kavkasia TV and Lagodekhi-based Hereti radio station, which airs in the Kakheti region. He said that both stations were experiencing problems, as businesses with ads on those stations were pressured to pull out their ads.
He also condemned the Georgian National Communications Commission (GNCC) decision not to allow the Tbilisi-based Maestro TV to start political programming. Subari said that the court hearings into the case were being dragged out deliberately by GNCC.
Then Subari pointed out at violation of right of freedom of assembly.
“November events showed that the authorities are intolerant towards demonstrations,” he said.
Not only excessive force was used to disperse demonstrations on November 7, Subari said, but there was an allegation that firearm was also used. He said that there was “alternative (not an official) medical examination” showing that three protesters had wounds inflicted by firearm.
Along with the excessive use, Subari noted, law enforcement agencies used rubber bullets, which was illegal. The public defender cited the Law on Police, which lists special equipment available to riot police. The list includes tear gas, water cannons and rubber batons, but not rubber bullets.
“Hence the issue of responsibility of not only individual riot policemen should be raised, but those high-ranking Interior Ministry officials, who authorized the purchase and then use of rubber bullets, should also be held responsible, including Interior Minister Vano Merabishvili,” Subari told lawmakers.
Subari also said that violation of property rights by the authorities started to increase in 2004 and the trend became “especially worrisome” in 2007.
“Violation of property rights included destruction of legally built buildings, cases of intimidation of owners, who were threatened to arrest their relatives by planting drugs if they refused to voluntarily hand over their properties to the state,” Subari said. “150 families in Shuakhevi [Adjara Autonomous Republic] were deprived of their property, but the state restored their rights on property on the eve of the [January 5] presidential elections.”
Unlike Subari’s previous addresses to the Parliament in past years, the recent one has seen many questions being asked by lawmakers from the ruling party.
One of the questions was about the human rights situation in the Gali district with MP Khatuna Gogorishvili of the ruling party complaining why the matter was “ignored” in the Public Defender’s report. Subari responded that 25 pages were dedicated to the matter in his report.
Another question asked by MP Gogorishvili was to specify the part of the report referring to, as she put it, dispute between the Georgian Orthodox Church and the Armenian Apostolic Church over several churches in Georgia. She also asked to specify what he meant under “xenophobic cases” in the Georgian media. After those remarks a lawmaker from the opposition Georgian Troupe Party, Jondi Bagaturia, told the Public Defender that although he was “positively disposed” towards him, Subari’s allegation over “xenophobic cases” in the media and his stance over disputed churches, “erased everything positive.”
MP Gogorishvili also recalled Public Defender’s stance about the concordat signed between the Orthodox Church and the Georgian State in 2002. Subari is criticizing the concordat, because the document gives important privileges to the Orthodox Church compared with other religious groups in Georgia. Criticism of the concordat in the country where the Georgian Orthodox Church enjoys with the highest confidence approval rate among the population, is highly unpopular.
Although in overall the parliamentary minority has welcomed the Public Defender’s report, some critical remarks were anyway voiced. A lawmaker from the Christian-Democratic Party, Levan Vepkhvadze, told Subari that his inability to protect his own rights (Subari was attacked a beaten during on November 7 when the riot police broke up the demonstration), was discrediting the Public Defender’s Office, as it was triggering a perception that the ombudsman would also fail to protect others’ rights.
“As it was expected we have heard biased, one-sided, politically-motivated and incompetent report,” MP Petre Tsiskarishvili of the parliamentary majority leader said. “Such one-side reports have discredited the Public Defender’s Office.”
“Your report amounts to discrediting of the Public Defender’s Office institution,” MP Eldar Kvernadze of the ruling party told the Public Defender. “All the institutions have strengthened in Georgia except of the Public Defender’s Office. We have heard a politically-motivated report.”
MP Giorgi Gabashvili of the ruling party said that the Public Defender spoke about the November 7 events without taking into account other side of the story.
He said that the anti-governmental demonstrations were organized not for the purpose to express protest peacefully, but with a purpose to overthrow the government.
“There was no difference between the statements of the opposition and the report we have heard. It was a typical address by an opposition politician. We have heard only rumors,” MP Gabashvili said. “We have heard extremely one-sided assessment of the November 7 events.”
“Report which is based only on negative issues without in-depth objective analysis amounts to a statement of an opposition politician and discredits the entire Public Defender’s Office,” MP Gabashvili added.
Sozar Subari responded the criticism by saying that he presented pure facts and he could not understand what the ruling party lawmakers meant by “need for objective assessment.”
After the hearing the Parliament passed a resolution saying it “has taken note of the Public Defender’s report” – a similar wording was used by the previous Parliament to react on the Public Defender’s report last year.
“It is of course up to the Parliament whether to only take note of the report, or to recommend the appropriate state agencies to react on the violations presented in the report; but if the Parliament fails to do that [call on the state agencies to react], it would mean that those very concrete cases of human rights violations will never be investigated and the negative trend will continue,” Subari told lawmakers.
Source: Civil.Ge Online Magazine