The News in Brief
Friday, December 6
By Liza Mchedlidze
November 13 activist: 'Supreme Court serves Ivanishvili’s personal demands’
Irakli Pavlenashvili, Activist who was injured and detained at November 13 protest, released a statement on his personal social media account, discussing his trial in which he was found guilty and accuses the Supreme Court of Georgia.
According to him, the prosecutor's representative was a policeman of Criminal police, who did not hold any factual evidence other than his own testimony. There was no video footage and no witnesses involved in the case and Pavlenishvili was still found guilty.
Irakli Pavlenishvili talked about specific factual inaccuracies that were revealed during the trial. One of them was that the policeman said the arrest statement was written immediately after the arrest on November 18, but the document reads that it was written later, specifically on November 19th.
According to the Police officer, he arrested Irakli Pavlenishvili while he was swearing at the Policemen, but later in the process, he was forced to acknowledge that he was following the Police special forces and it was impossible to discern who was swearing in the group of hundreds of people and withdrew the accusation.
After the detainee told the court that the whole process was a political order because it was not based on any evidence, Judge Valeri Pilishvili threatened to punish him for insulting the court.
Irakli Pavlenishvili questions the independent decision-making process and assesses the situation in the Supreme Court as ‘chaotic’ and says that it is under the influence of ‘Clan Rule’ and it serves only Ivanishvili’s personal demands.
Monk detained for drug purchase and procurement
Giga Kavtaradze, a monk who serves at Mount Athos and another person, Roma Malania were arrested on charges of drug purchase and procurement in Zugdidi. The monk was imposed with a bail of 10000 GEL.
According to his lawyer, Giga Kavtaradze said that the bag containing the drug was handed over to another person and he was intending to take it back later.
“The court recognized that there is a second person involved in this case who confesses the bag belonged to him and the judge did not obey the prosecutor's proposal of detaining and imposed bail of 10 000 GEL. The Monk says he gave the bag with drugs to Malania, who was traveling to Tbilisi. He wanted to go to Tbilisi and pick it up himself later.”
The types and quantity of drugs are yet unknown.
The investigation is in progress under the article 260 of the Criminal Code of Georgia.
Ombudsman to send Opposition’s draft to OSCE/ODIHR regarding the new electoral system
The Ombudsman is preparing the United Opposition’s draft regarding the new electoral system to send to OSCE/ODIHR on Monday.
Nino Lomjaria will ask OSCE/ODIHR to fasten the process of examining the matter.
“We have already started the procedures. There are some technical sides we are taking care of. I am not going to discuss it further, but we are trying to send the documents to ODIHR as soon as possible.
There are some technical procedures we are having and the final day of sending the document will be Monday. We do not have deadlines but we will be asking OSCE/ODIHR to discuss the matter as soon as possible,” said Lomjaria.
Ombudsman met with Adjara TV journalists and director
The public defender Nino Lonjaria met with the Journalists and the director of Adjara TV. The journalists spoke about the dangers regarding editorial independence and impartiality.
Lomjaria announced her full support of the independence and impartiality of the journalists of Adjara TV and said that she will be following the situation closely:
"It is unacceptable to interfere in the activities of journalists, especially in the ways and forms that have become known to me, this will create an unhealthy working environment.”
After the meeting with the director of Adjara TV Giorgi Kokhreidze, Nino Lomjaria gave him the advice to interfere less in the working process of journalists and to concentrate on management and administration activities.
November 13 activist: 'Supreme Court serves Ivanishvili’s personal demands’
Irakli Pavlenashvili, Activist who was injured and detained at November 13 protest, released a statement on his personal social media account, discussing his trial in which he was found guilty and accuses the Supreme Court of Georgia.
According to him, the prosecutor's representative was a policeman of Criminal police, who did not hold any factual evidence other than his own testimony. There was no video footage and no witnesses involved in the case and Pavlenishvili was still found guilty.
Irakli Pavlenishvili talked about specific factual inaccuracies that were revealed during the trial. One of them was that the policeman said the arrest statement was written immediately after the arrest on November 18, but the document reads that it was written later, specifically on November 19th.
According to the Police officer, he arrested Irakli Pavlenishvili while he was swearing at the Policemen, but later in the process, he was forced to acknowledge that he was following the Police special forces and it was impossible to discern who was swearing in the group of hundreds of people and withdrew the accusation.
After the detainee told the court that the whole process was a political order because it was not based on any evidence, Judge Valeri Pilishvili threatened to punish him for insulting the court.
Irakli Pavlenishvili questions the independent decision-making process and assesses the situation in the Supreme Court as ‘chaotic’ and says that it is under the influence of ‘Clan Rule’ and it serves only Ivanishvili’s personal demands.
Monk detained for drug purchase and procurement
Giga Kavtaradze, a monk who serves at Mount Athos and another person, Roma Malania were arrested on charges of drug purchase and procurement in Zugdidi. The monk was imposed with a bail of 10000 GEL.
According to his lawyer, Giga Kavtaradze said that the bag containing the drug was handed over to another person and he was intending to take it back later.
“The court recognized that there is a second person involved in this case who confesses the bag belonged to him and the judge did not obey the prosecutor's proposal of detaining and imposed bail of 10 000 GEL. The Monk says he gave the bag with drugs to Malania, who was traveling to Tbilisi. He wanted to go to Tbilisi and pick it up himself later.”
The types and quantity of drugs are yet unknown.
The investigation is in progress under the article 260 of the Criminal Code of Georgia.
Ombudsman to send Opposition’s draft to OSCE/ODIHR regarding the new electoral system
The Ombudsman is preparing the United Opposition’s draft regarding the new electoral system to send to OSCE/ODIHR on Monday.
Nino Lomjaria will ask OSCE/ODIHR to fasten the process of examining the matter.
“We have already started the procedures. There are some technical sides we are taking care of. I am not going to discuss it further, but we are trying to send the documents to ODIHR as soon as possible.
There are some technical procedures we are having and the final day of sending the document will be Monday. We do not have deadlines but we will be asking OSCE/ODIHR to discuss the matter as soon as possible,” said Lomjaria.
Ombudsman met with Adjara TV journalists and director
The public defender Nino Lonjaria met with the Journalists and the director of Adjara TV. The journalists spoke about the dangers regarding editorial independence and impartiality.
Lomjaria announced her full support of the independence and impartiality of the journalists of Adjara TV and said that she will be following the situation closely:
"It is unacceptable to interfere in the activities of journalists, especially in the ways and forms that have become known to me, this will create an unhealthy working environment.”
After the meeting with the director of Adjara TV Giorgi Kokhreidze, Nino Lomjaria gave him the advice to interfere less in the working process of journalists and to concentrate on management and administration activities.