On July 10, 2012 a non-profit legal entity Georgia - Not For Sale was registered. According to its the Facebook page: “The goal of the organization is to provide public with comprehensive information about Bidzina Ivanishvili’s political activities, help separate oligarchic money from healthy political processes to prevent misleading of the society and discourage vote-buying. To this end, Georgia - Not For Sale plans to launch a large-scale public outreach campaign online, as well as through television and other means of media. Having certain political goals, Georgia - Not For Sale has applied to the State Audit Agency with a letter inviting it to conduct financial monitoring of the organization.” According to the Organic Law of Georgia on Political Unions of Citizens, party regulations also apply to an entity which has declared political goals and uses financial and other material resources to achieve these goals. According to the statements released by Georgia - Not For Sale, it has no election goals but may have certain political goals which are differentiated from electoral goals under the Georgian legislation. In order for an entity to be recognized as equal to a party it should have election goals. As of today, reports don’t confirm that the organization Georgia – Not For Sale has any election goals (participation in the elections and the desire to win).
2012-07-16 11:56 See moreGeorgian Young Lawyers’ Association (GYLA) and the International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy (ISFED) will monitor the manifestation to be held by the coalition Georgian Dream on July 15, 2012 in Gori. The monitoring will be carried out within the frames of a long-term pre-election monitoring, which entails monitoring of public meetings organized by political parties as well as realization of freedom of assembly and manifestation. Monitors will observe all developments in Gori and throughout the regions related to organization of the July 15, 2012 assembly and mobilization and relocation of participants. GYLA and ISFED remain hopeful that the assembly will be held in a peaceful environment and the authorities will observe legal guarantees for assembly and manifestation.
2012-07-13 09:31 See moreYesterday, on July 12, visit of the Georgian Dream leaders to the IDP settlement in Karaleti, city of Gori was followed by a clash. During the incident journalists were also injured. According to the editor of Internet publication qartli.ge, Saba Tsitsikashvili, he was covering the meeting in Karaleti IDP settlement when Gigi and Gogita Gochashvilis of the city of Gori as well as one of the employees of Kurta Community Gamgeoba, Levan Maisuradze, physically assaulted him. A group of citizens expressed clear aggression against activist that had arrived for election campaigning. Video footage released by Info 9 agency illustrates facts of physical and verbal abuse of activists and journalists. Certain individuals threw rocks at representatives of media and assembly participants, resulting in bodily injuries sustained by several individuals. The Public Defender has reported that following representatives of Info 9 agency have been injured: Tamta Iluridze, Eka Iluridze, Shorena Khabalashvili, Rezo Nadiradze and Lekso Aleksidze, as well as the following journalists of Channel 9: Nukri Beglarishvili and Nodar Skhirtladze, Trialeti TV representatives Nino Bolashvili and Mamuka Kevkhishvili and journalist of Shida Kartli Information Center Saba Tsitsikashvili. Regrettably, police did not appear on the scene. One person dressed in civilian clothes was trying to prevent a clash between the two sides.
2012-07-13 09:30 See moreThe Georgian Young Lawyer's Association and Transparency International Georgia urge the Tbilisi City Court and the Prosecutor's Office to release relevant evidence and present an adequate legal justification for the seizing of sattelite dishes imported by Maestro TV. Preventing the distribution of sattelite dishes – which Maestro has claimed will be financed by its owners – may be publicly perceived as a step that could limit citizen's access to media. Any actions taken against media outlets should be proportionate and be carried out with a maximum of transparency. It should also be clearly explained to the public how the distribution of satellite dishes by Maestro qualifies as vote buying for the opposition Georgian Dream coalition. To our knowledge, Maestro has not started the distribution of antennas yet, and the terms and conditions of this action are not clear yet. On July 3, Maestro's director, Ilya Kikabidze, had told media.ge that users will receive "the equipment after concluding (a) contract. Our lawyers are working on the contract. Now I cannot tell you exactly what the antennas will cost, or what the conditions will be but we shall establish a symbolic amount, a very minimal fee."
2012-07-11 17:48 See moreOn June 10, 2012, a statement offering an explanation about Zura Vazagashvili’s case was published on Public Broadcaster’s website. The statement said that “with regard to the incident that occurred by the tennis court, there is a resolution of the prosecutor’s office dated April 19, 2007, which says the following: quote - “based on operative information, probe was launched against Vazagashvili, khubulovi, Poturidze into the fact of preparation of robbery attack. According to the operative information received, members of the criminal gang were armed,” – end of quote. This formulation is an official evaluation of the prosecutor’s office with respect to the fact. Moambe is based on official sources and it does not qualify itself actions of this or that person.” On May 2, 2012, a report prepared about an assembly of Zurab Vazagashvili’s relatives and representatives of the society, marking anniversary of Zura Vazagashvili’s death by the tennis court was aired during the 4pm newscast Moambe. The report provided a detailed overview of the incident that occurred on May 2, 20116, involving death of Zura Vazagashvili. The report noted that ‘Vazagashvili was a member of an armed gang’. With the assistance of GYLA, Zura Vazagashvili’s parents filed a complaint with the self-regulatory agency of the Public Broadcaster, seeking rebuttal of the information.
2012-07-11 14:37 See moreGeorgian Young Lawyers' Association Transparency International - Georgia On July 4, 2012, the State Audit Agency published a statement responding the letter What was Bidzina Ivanishvili Fined For? published by NGOs Georgian Young Lawyers' Association (GYLA) and Transparency International - Georgia on June 28. In its statement the State Audit Agency addresses not only the arguments related to appearance of the State Audit Agency before court and evidence submitted by it but also tries to justify certain actions of court, its decisions, which is beyond the agency's purview. The State Audit Agency refers to the NGOs' evaluation of Bidzina Ivanishvili's fining as "a very bold and loud assessment"; however it also fails to offer substantiated arguments for invalidating objective and impartial arguments presented by us.
2012-07-11 11:11 See moreOn July 9, 2012, the Public Broadcaster’s board of trustees granted the appellate claim of Iuri Vazagashvili and Tsiala Shanava. On May 2, 2012, a report prepared about an assembly of Zurab Vazagashvili’s relatives and representatives of the society, marking anniversary of Zura Vazagashvili’s death by Tennis Courts was aired during the 4pm newscast Moambe. The report provided a detailed overview of the incident that occurred on May 2, 20116, involving death of Zura Vazagashvili. The report noted that ‘Vazagashvili was a member of an armed gang’. With the assistance of GYLA, Zura Vazagashvili’s parents filed a complaint with the self-regulatory agency of the Public Broadcaster, seeking rebuttal of the information.
2012-07-10 11:07 See moreRecently there have been frequent facts of violence against representatives of Info 9. Public servants abuse journalists verbally and physically, which is confirmed by video material recorded by cameramen. Further, journalists have been followed all week long by unknown individuals with camera. They identify themselves as members of Media Group, asking questions about professional and personal life. Under these circumstances, journalists are deprived from an opportunity to carry out their activities. With their intense actions, these unknown individuals surpass the frames of freedom of expression and interfere with professional and private lives of others. GMLDC believes that actions perpetrated against representatives of Info 9 bear the marks of criminal offence. We call on the law enforcement authorities to launch a probe into these facts and take adequate further actions in order for journalists to be able to continue their work under normal working conditions.
2012-07-10 07:45 See moreOn June 24, 2012, GYLA released a statement on impounding of property on the account of Global Contact Consulting LLC under the June 21, 2012 decision of Tbilisi City Court. In its statement GYLA evaluated lawfulness of the decision and other circumstances on grounds of Article 151 of the Criminal Procedures Code of Georgia, noting that the decision to impound the property was made in violation of procedures law. In response to the statement, we received a legal analysis from the secretariat of the Anti-Corruption Council, focusing on Article 151 of the Criminal Procedures Code of Georgia. Therefore, we believe it is necessary to focus our judgment solely on Article 151 of the Criminal Procedures Code in our further opinion. Hereby, we present our initial assessment again, in light of Article 151. However, first we should note that crimes of corruption are not systematized in the Criminal Procedures Code. Moreover, the Code does not offer any definition of corruption as a crime. Thus the law leaves an unjustifiably broad discretion for evaluating whether criminal actions concerned constitute corruption. As for the crime of vote-buying, despite its criminal characteristics, it must also be taken into account that it is included in the chapter dealing with crimes against basic human rights and freedoms, which clearly excludes the possibility of arguing that it amounts to criminal actions of corruption. Neither does the UN Convention against Corruption, ratified by Georgia, qualifies vote-buying as corruption. The Justice Ministry’s official website offers a standard scheme of qualification of crimes. According to the scheme, crimes fall under three levels of classification. The first level differentiates between violent and non-violent crimes; the second differentiates between particularly grave, grave and less grave crimes. The third level differentiates between crimes according to objects/different chapters of the Criminal Code, including common crimes as a separate category, whose statistics are maintained by the MoJ.
2012-07-06 12:09 See moreGYLA responds to the legal draft initiated in the parliament on amendments to the law of Georgia on Structure, Authority and Rules of Operation of the Government, which in GYLA’s opinion constitutes as a step towards weakening parliamentary control on the Government. The proposed draft removes paragraphs 22, 4 and 7 from Article 12 of the law. These norms regulate matters related to initiating an issue for examining during the session of the government, rules related to examining and deciding on issues by the government and number of votes necessary for making decisions. Under paragraph 7, Article 12 of the law, Government is authorized to examine issues if more than half of the members of the government are present at the session. Government makes decisions by majority of votes of members in attendance. Under the proposed new regulations, the procedure for making decisions by the government will be determined by regulations as opposed to a legal act. These regulations will be proposed by PM and adopted by the Government. Hence, the draft law strips parliament of the right to regulate procedures of government’s decision-making. Instead, these procedures will be determined independently by the government and PM.
2012-07-05 12:15 See more