For the past several days the Ministry of Interior held some wide scale police raids in the capital which raised concern of the part of population. Policemen stopped and searched pedestrians and vehicles and inspected private documentation of citizens. As reported, sometimes policemen wrote down personal information of individuals (name, father's name, address, phone number) and took photos of them by mobile phones. We consider that often implemented activities were illegal and violated human rights and freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution.

The Coalition for an Independent and Transparent Judiciary states again its position concerning the draft law initiated by Shalva Shavgulidze on “Introducing  Amendments to the Organic Law of Georgia on Common Courts” to be discussed by the Parliament of Georgia. As it is known, the Parliament considers the draft by second reading with an accelerated manner today. In addition, today Mr. Konstantine Kublashvili, Chairman of the Supreme Court, expressed his position regarding the legislative draft and suggested temporary suspension of the discussion. In view of above we considered necessary to  express our position once again.  

As it is known to public, GYLA held presentation of the report “Rehabilitation Process beyond the Facade” on September 24 and 27, 2013 in Tbilisi and Batumi.

The report discusses in details the the program for Rehabilitation of Historic Districts and Tourism Infrastructure in Batumi carried out by Batumi local self-government in 2009-2013.  The projects funded in the framework of the Program, such as construction of Alphabetic Tower and Piazza Square, as well as Historic Fort and Opera House are submitted separately in the report. Important part of this report also addresses monuments with the status of cultural heritage in Batumi.  

GYLA has been monitoring court hearings on Bacho Akhalaia’s case and concludes that prosecution’s conduct contains signs of deliberate delay of the trial. 

On the September 17th hearing, the prosecutor Revaz Nadoi had to submit his closing argument, however it was not done for his absence (it should be noted that the day before, on September 16th, the hearing on Megis Kardava’s and others case was postponed on the basis of Nadoi’s written application where he stated that preparation for the closing argument on Akhalaia’s case was the reason of postponement). At the next hearing Revaz Nadoi, failed to appear for his worsened health condition, however, the case still misses the relevant medical document justifying the fact.   

Starting from the date of its foundation in 1994, GYLA is active in monitoring legislative, executive and local government’s elections and strives to support peaceful and fair conduct of elections with full observance of Georgian legislation.

On October 27th, the Presidential Election Day, GYLA observed election process in 8 regions and 36 election districts with more than 400 observers. Moreover, GYLA had observers at the polling stations in the Great Britain and Germany.

According to the information released on the web-page of the TV Company “Tabula”, on August 24, 2013 while recording police raids in Tbilisi, Patrol Police stopped Giorgi Sikharulidze, the journalist from “Tabula”. As Tabula reports, Police abused the journalist verbally, searched him and destroyed the filmed video.

The Coalition for an Independent and Transparent Judiciary welcomes the government’s initiative to continue the judiciary reform, and expresses its readiness to actively cooperate with all the three branches of power for ensuring establishment and maintenance of an independent, fair and effective judiciary system in Georgia. 

Eka Kvesitadze, the journalist of the public broadcaster was discharged from the office on the basis of the September 17, 2013 order of Tamaz Tkemaladze, the acting general director of the public broadcaster. As reported, the reason of dismissal was closing of the program “Accents”. 

The journalist had contract with the public broadcaster until the end of 2013. As per Article 37 and 38 of the Labor Code, if the initiator of the invalidation of contract is an employee, he/she must notify the employer no lesser than thirty calendar days in advance in writing. In addition, the employer may use the restricted term of advance notification and inform the employee on termination of the Labor Contract three days earlier. In such case, the employer should reimburse to the employee two months compensation. 

On September 26, 2013 GYLA submitted its opinion to the Parliament on the draft Police Law.

Applicable Police Law was adopted in 1998 and is outdated, while the issue of substituting it with new legislative act compatible with international standards has been on the agenda long ago. The structure of the draft is well developed. It is important that key principles of police activities have been incorporated in a separate chapter and were improved. Nevertheless, GYLA considers that the draft contains significant gaps that needs to be improved.