According to Batumelebi newspaper, on November 20, 2011 a person who was blackmailing a coordinator of investigative team of the newspaper, Tedo Jorbenadze, was identified. It was the person who was trying to force Tedo Jorbenadze into cooperation with special services by means of blackmail on November 25, 2009, in the building of the Interior Ministry in Batumi.

Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association was defending interests of Tedo Jorbenadze from the very beginnig, calling for timely and effective investigation.  
On November 20, 2011, Davit Devnozashvili was identified by an eyewitness of blackmail Ms Mzia Amaglobeli outside his apartment in Tbilisi, at 26 Dolidze Str. Mzia Amaglobeli called patrol police who was also accompanied by investigators. According to Mzia Amaglobeli, patrol police crew did not draw up a protocol on the scene, i.e. it did not document the fact. They verbally clarified that the investigation was ongoing.

On November 8, 2011, 83 Georgian MPs proposed draft of the constitutional law increasing seats in parliament from current 150 to 190.

The Constitution of Georgia stipulates that for partial revision of the Constitution, it is necessary to set up an organizational commission for public discussion of the draft law. The commission should examine all relevant materials within one month before Parliament considers the draft.

On November 11, 2011, Parliament of Georgia adopted a resolution on setting up a commission consisting of 28 members. GYLA is one of the members; however, we became aware of our membership only after the resolution was published. We remain hopeful that our membership in similar commissions will be coordinated with us first.

Under the October 13, 2011 amendment to the organic law of Georgia “Election Code of Georgia”, a commission established under the presidential decree will verify accuracy of voter lists for the 2012 parliamentary elections. Its work will be governed by a set of regulations proposed by the Commission and approved by the President of Georgia.

GYLA believes that issues such as providing express definition of the Commission’s mandate and procedures of its activities, determining the Commission’s expanses in details, and monitoring of funds at the disposal of the Commission as well as setting up certain mechanisms for evaluating its work should be addressed and regulated. 
Having familiarized itself with the draft regulations, GYLA believes that it is rather general and a number of individual provisions need to be improved and thoroughly revised, for example, means for verifying voter lists; composition of the commission; the rule for electing managers of the commission; authority of its members; its finances and property. Furthermore, the draft fails to regulate certain issues, such as authority of the commission and procedures for discharging the authority; duration of its work; public access to its meetings as well as procedures for making and appealing decisions.

GYLA submitted its comments about the draft regulations to the Voter List Rechecking Commission as well. 

Georgia’s first-ever jury trial was held on November 18, 2011. By a vote of 10 to 2, jurors found defendants guilty.

As reported by Rustavi 2 TV Company, on November 19, President of Georgia met with members of the victim’s family and expressed his opinion about the trial. 
The president expressed his approval of the fact that jurors made a “rightful” decision, punished criminals and to a certain extent he also expressed his gratitude to jurors for delivering a verdict of guilty.

We believe that such statements send a bad massage to citizens of Georgia (prospective jurors) telling them that a verdict of guilty is a “rightful” decision and therefore, it is something that future jurors should strive for.

GYLA believes that the government has a positiver obligation to promote freedom of media within the frames of its authority, which, first and foremost, should translate into elimination of direct and indirect factors that may hinder dissemination of free speech.

GYLA shares the concern of Press Association over the fact that the form of auction carried out by the City Hall for placement of booths within the frames of free competition is nothing more than a form of indirect restriction of circulation of print media. It is unacceptible that licensing conditions for operating booths to sell food or newspaper are identical, without any differentiation.

According to the information released by Press Association, the decision made by Tbilisi City Hall will have a negative impact on circulation of newspapers and magazines, and has inflicted significant detriment to print media which is already in a diffical situation.

Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association expresses its concern over the developments around Maestro TV.

As you may be aware, Maestro TV has been off air since today morning due to the disagreement between its founders and Erosi Kitsmarishvili, the founder of the company managing Maestro TV. Journalists were not allowed inside the building to carry out their professional activities.

Later, one of the founders of Maestro TV, Mamuka Glonti and some of the employees of the TV company managed to get inside the building. As of now, Maestro has resumed broadcasting live on air; however, according to its founders the threat of suspending broadcasting of Maestro TV still exists.

The Government of Georgia plans to reform the field of competition. Therefore, Parliament of Georgia is currently considering the new draft law. Yesterday, on November 29, Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association submitted to parliament its legal opinion on the draft law . Earlier, on November 1, GYLA’s opinions were provided to the Government of Georgia in a written form. Comments of the Association focus on institutional independence of the State Procurement Agency and the procedures for considering appeals.

At this stage of legal drafting, it is of vital importance to create sound guarantees for independence and objectivity of the agency responsible for enforcement of new procedures of competition. On the one hand, the noted institute should be free from any influence from the authorities, as it supervises state assistance; on the other hand, it should remain impartial towards entrepreneurial entities.

According to the draft, Chairperson of the Agency is appointed and dismissed by the Prime Minister. The noted provision promotes instability of the work of the chairperson. In consideration of the fact that the Agency examines lawfulness of assistance provided by the state, it is rather risky to delegate the noted power to the Prime Minister. Under the circumstances, all means of repression should be removed from the executive authority. We believe that the Chairperson should have more guarantees of immunity. To this end, the law should provide for the role of the parliament in appointment of the Chairperson and determine the term of his authority.

The International Day of Persons with Disabilities is celebrated on December 3. On this occasion, Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association would like to focus on the human rights situation of persons with disabilities.

Bearing in mind the fundamental rights of human dignity and honor guaranteed by the Constitution of Georgia and international human rights documents, as well as the essence of the fact that being a human has a value in itself, GYLA stresses that persons with disabilities should be equally benefit from basic human rights and legal guarantees, without any discrimination.

GYLA would like to also highlight the fact that persons with disabilities in Georgia remain to be one of the most socially vulnerable part of the population. Problems that they face in terms of realization of their rights are multidimensional and translate into everyday social barriers as well as multiple barriers engendered by inadequate efforts of the government, which ultimately prevents persons with disabilities from leading a dignified way of life and hinders their social integration.

The Parliament of Georgia is considering draft of very important amendments to the Civil Procedure Code of Georgia.

The draft of amendments to the Civil Procedure Code change the procedures for summoning claimant legal entities, individual entrepreneurs and their representatives to court; an employer of the office of court will be entitled to refuse registration of a lawsuit (application) even when corresponding document is delivered by mail; a claimant will be obligated to provide the respondent with copies of the lawsuit and enclosed documents; the court of first instance will no longer deliver a ruling about deficiencies in the lawsuit (application) but rather, will directly refuse to admit it, etc. More specifically, according to the draft law:

•    The first instance court will no longer deliver a ruling about deficiencies in the lawsuit but rather, will directly refuse to admit it. With the only exception, all circumstances that served as grounds for delivering a ruling on deficiencies in a lawsuit will now serve as grounds for deeming the lawsuit as inadmissible.

•    An employee of the office of court will have the right to refuse registration of a lawsuit (application) even if it is delivered by mail, which may deprive a claimant from the right to apply to court due to expiration of time limit.

Today, Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association released a statement over the fact of physical and psychological pressure exerted against convicted Kakha Baratashvili at the penitentiary department’s treatment facility for convicts and defendants. With the noted statement, GYLA called on the office of the prosecutor of Georgia to start investigation into the fact of ill-treatment of convicted K. Baratashvili, and expressed hope that his life and threat would not be endangered.

Several hours ago, we learned that convicted K. Baratashvili who underwent surgery on November 30 at the same treatment facility, was physically harassed last night by employees of the facility. Furthermore, threats were made against his family members.

GYLA once more condemns physical harassment of the prisoner at the penitentiary department, particularly in consideration of the fact that the violence occurred at a medical facility for convicts and prisoners.