According to the official information aired by media, on December 13, 2014, the company “RMG Gold” has renewed mining works at the license section #1 of the Sakdrisi-Kachaghiani site.
According to the official information aired by media, on December 13, 2014, the company “RMG Gold” has renewed mining works at the license section #1 of the Sakdrisi-Kachaghiani site.
On December 12, 2014 the Department of Criminal Police of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) of Georgia detained the Director of IDFI Giorgi Kldiashvili. He was charged with illegally carrying a firearm. Mr. Kldiashvili was taking his antique firearm for maintenance and care; he went with his registered permit for the firearm. He did not have an additional official specific permit from the Service Agency of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Georgia for the transportation of the antique firearm. Representatives of MIA initially stated that Giorgi Kldiashvili’s conduct was to be classified as an administrative offense and he would be fined for it. However, Mr. Kldiashvili was charged with a criminal offense (illegally baring firearms) pursuant to the Article 236, Part 2 of the Criminal Code. This charge carries a a punishment of a fine or imprisonment from 3 to 5 years. Giorgi Kldiashvili was interrogated for 3 hours by MIA officers, and then taken into custody. He was placed in isolation, so called “Module’s” premises where he was detained for 2 days.
Based on the decision of the board of the Georgian Young Lawyers‘ Association (GYLA), the new chairperson – Ana Natsvlishvili will lead the organization since December 24, 2014.
We would like to voice our position about recent developments in TV Company Maestro questioning editorial independence of the channel and professional freedom of journalists, as well as violating labor rights of Maestro employees guaranteed by the legislation of Georgia.
On December 12, 2014, based on the decisions made by the Ministry of Culture and Monument Protection of Georgia and the National Agency for Cultural Heritage Preservation of Georgia, the company “RMG Gold” has renewed the wide-scale works at the oldest gold mine of Sakdrisi-Kachaghiani, under the name of deconstruction of an archaeological object. Renewal of those works represents a crime, because the Tbilisi City Court has suspended the right of the “RMG Gold” to conduct broad-scale works.
Coalition for an Independent and Transparent Judiciary is addressing the issue of election of the new Chief Justice, which has already garnered growing public interest. The current Chief Justice’s term is up in February, 2015.
On January 14 2015, the largest European union, working on the cultural heritage matters – Europa Nostra has publicized an official statement on the events, surrounding Sakdrisi-Kachaghiani.
On January 20, 2015, father of Zurab Vazagashvili – Yuri Vazagashvili, died following the explosion at his son’s grave. The case is launched on the deliberate murder.
We, the undersigned NGOs, believe that Article 2391 of the amendment proposed by the Ministry of Internal Affairs (hereinafter, MIA) to the Criminal Code of Georgia carries a risk of unreasonably restricting freedom of expression and stifling criticism. According to the proposal, inciting hatred — “public calls for violent actions, made verbally, in written or through other forms of expression and aimed to cause hostility or discord between racial, religious, national, regional, ethnic, social, linguistic or/and other groups,” will be could result in criminal prosecution.
On January 27, 2015 Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association and Partnership for Human Rights held presentation of the final report of the joint project - “Strengthening Women against Labor Discrimination and Gender Violence”.