On April 4, 2012 the Civil Registry Agency announced that Bidzina ivanishvili is not eligible to receive Georgian citizenship through naturalization. In view of high public interest to the issue, GYLA considers necessary to submit its legal assessment over the decision.  Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association thinks that the decision is not in line with Georgian legislation.

The legislation of Georgia provides two separate procedures for individuals seeking to obtain Georgian citizenship: 1) naturalization and 2) dual citizenship. The major difference among them is that after receiving Georgian citizenship through naturalization a person shall not be citizen of any other country. If in the process to receive Georgian citizenship through naturalization an applicant is a foreign citizen there should be his/her officially declared will that after accepting Georgian citizenship he/she will renounce other country’s citizenship. As for dual citizenship, an applicant can maintain other country(s)’s citizenship even after gaining Georgian citizenship.

As we know, in the case concerned, before applying for citizenship through naturalization, Ivanishvili submitted to the French embassy official request for launching procedures for his withdrawal from the French citizenship. The Civil Registry Agency was aware about Ivanishvili’s will that he would renounce his French citizenship in case of gaining Georgian citizenship. Therefore, the aim of the law, that a person can be only the citizen of Georgia after gaining citizenship through naturalization, should have been attained.

Recently representatives of various political parties made statements by means of media (Channel 25, Kronika newspaper, etc.), demonstrating xenophobic, religious and ethnic intolerance. We assume that these statements were probably meant to turn playing with ethnic and religious sentiments into a key instrument for gaining votes.

All politicians should realize that it is impossible to succeed in Georgia by playing with xenophobic, religious sentiments. No one should be allowed to stir up opposition on ethnic or religious grounds in Georgia and to jeopardize Georgia’s statehood.

We apply to the ruling as well as the oppositional parties in Georgia and political or public leaders, to let them know that no purpose, including one’s strive to remain in power or come to power, can justify manipulation with noted issues for the purpose of gaining votes in the elections. Ethnic or political affiliation of an opponent may not serve as an argument for reinforcing one’s position in political debates.

On April 5, 2011, the Christian-Democratic Movement initiated a constitutional amendment granting citizens of EU member-states with the rights to pursue political activities and participate in elections. More specifically, current draft of the initiative of the parliamentary majority allows for election of a citizen of any EU member-state as Georgia’s member of the parliament, if s/he was born and has been living in Georgia for the past 10 years. The initiative was also endorsed by the parliamentary majority.

The initiative also envisages a possibility of granting these individuals with political rights, including the right to hold a political office, which is currently exclusively enjoyed by citizens of Georgia.

On April 5, 2012, Rustavi City Court found defendant Elguja Kavlelishvili under the custody of GYLA not guilty.

Elguja Kavlelishvili was charged under paragraph 1 of Article 362 of the Criminal Code of Georgia – use of forged documents – which envisions a fine or up to 3 years of imprisonment.

Elguja Kavlelishvili is a professional driver. A patrol officer suspected that his driving license was forged since it was not registered in the unified database of patrol police. It served as the basis for launching investigation.

Today, on April 11, 2012, four non-governmental organizations – Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association, Transparency International – Georgia, Association of Regional Media of Georgia and the Green Alternative Association – held a presentation of another report prepared within the frames of the project Promotion of Property Rights in New Tourist Zones.

There were several key problems revealed in the process of preparing the report:

•         Frequent cases of free of charge transfer of lands and real estate by citizens of Georgia in favor of the government throughout Georgia and particularly in tourist zones.

•         Frequently there are mass cases of transfer of lands and real estate when dozens of citizens on one and the same territory abandons their property in favor of the government or presents the property to the government. For instance, there were 79 cases of property abandonment by natural persons on the territory of resort Bakhmaro during the period of January 13-25, 2011, and 20 facts of presenting property to the government by entrepreneurs in the resort of Sairme during December 13-23, 2010.

On March 7, 2012 Akaki Dadiani – a convicted died in a prisoners’ medical center No 18. The medical report provides that heart, vascular and respiratory failure due to tuberculosis was the reason of his death.

According to medical report a convicted had serious health problems. Levan Samkharauli National Forensic Bureau provides in its report that: “A. Dadiani suffers from acute phthisical pathology, as for hepatology, his health condition is not serious.”  Even though according to the report, Dadiani’s health condition was not critical in terms of hepatology, acute phthiscial pathology was sufficient ground for postponing his sentence. Generally, decision on postponement of punishment is made by a court.

According to the ruling of Tbilisi City Court of February 28, 2012 A.Dadiani’s motion on postponing of the sentence was not satisfied for “lack of reasoning”. Later on the ruling was appealed to an appeal court. The lawyer reported that a convicted Daduani was unable to move independently and his health condition was critical. Yet, no reaction followed and Dadiani died on March 7, 2012.

On March 15, Tbilisi Court of Appeal did not uphold the motion on postponing the punishment. The court observed that “though he is seriously ill with tuberculosis, submitted documents does not prove that his health condition will prevent serving the sentence.” However, Dadiani had died 8 days before the court submitted its reasoning.

On April 20, 2012 GYLA applied to Constitutional Court on behalf of Marina Kiku – Moldova citizen. GYLA demands to annul the restriction of foreign citizens’ right to organize and be responsible for protest meetings and manifestations.

On April 11, 2011 the Constitutional Court of Georgia satisfied Public Defender’s constitutional case and considered unconstitutional article of the Law on Assembly and Manifestation of Georgia which deprived foreign citizens of the right to be organizers and responsible persons for protest meetings and manifestations. Trustee of the assembly and an organizer, who is entitled to file notification to executive body of local self-governance and who is able to call on the participants for dissolution of the meeting, are considered to be responsible persons.

The prohibition that was considered unconstitutional by the Constitutional Court concerned non-citizens and stateless persons.

On April 11, 2012 the Constitutional Court of Georgia made a decision on the case Public Defender of Georgia vs. The Parliament of Georgia. The full version of the decision was placed on the official web-page of the Constitutional Court recently. Constitutional Court recognized license obligation for the cable broadcasting service unconstitutional, in contradiction with Article 24 (freedom of expression) of the Constitution of Georgia, however the court deemed necessary the license for satellite-based broadcasting.

GYLA, having the status of “a friend of the court”, was involved in the case. We should highlight that written opinions proposed by GYLA were reflected in descriptive part of the decision.  GYLA insisted that unlike to terrestrial platform, in cable and satellite broadcasting naturally exhausting resource – frequency was not applied, therefore, receiving of license for start of such broadcasting from the Georgian National Communications Commission (GNCC) was not appropriate. On its side, after initiation of broadcasting without license by cable and satellite-based broadcasters, the Regulatory Commission should have retained the authority to inspect lawfulness of activity of such broadcasters.

Today, on April 23 in hotel “Courtyard Marriott” GYLA presented a research “Construction of the Parliament of Georgia in Kutaisi” prepared in the framework of the project “Promotion of Accountability and Transparency in Georgia”.

By this monitoring GYLA attempted to find out lawfulness of implemented procurements of works for construction of the Parliament building in Kutaisi and reasonability and effectiveness of incurred state expenditures.

Public information retrieved from and disclosed by public agencies served as the primary source for the monitoring.

With a view to receive public information GYLA central and Kutaisi branch offices filed administrative complaints to public agencies as well as lodged administrative cases to the courts when necessary.

The monitoring revealed following trends:

To: Mr.  Luis Moreno-Ocampo

To: Ms Fatou Bensouda

24 April 2012

Tbilisi, Georgia

Dear Ms Fatou Bensouda and Mr Luis Moreno-Ocampo,

The signatory organizations named below welcome the election of Ms. Fatou Bensouda as the next Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC). We hope that the role of the ICC in strengthening international justice and prosecuting international crimes will be strengthened throughout the following nine years.

Mr. Prosecutor, Madame Prosecutor-elect, we write to you today to urge you in your capacity to ensure that justice is served in relation to the August 2008 conflict between Georgia and Russia – a situation under preliminary examination by the ICC’s Office of the Prosecutor since 2008.

More than three years have passed since the announcement of the opening of a preliminary examination into the August 2008 armed conflict between Georgia and Russia. Evidence from numerous sources indicates that grave crimes occurred during (and following) the conflict, including war crimes and crimes against humanity. As a result of the conflict, over 23,000 people have been forcibly displaced, villages have been torched and razed to the ground, and the territory of South Ossetia has been completely cleansed of ethnic Georgians. Evidence points to crimes having been committed by both sides to the conflict.