The “Young Barristers” appeals to the parlament to increase the limitation period, which is real solution to the confiscated property cases

8 October, 2014

The organization “Young Barristers” positively evaluates the position of the Parliament of Georgia, according to which the initiative will be presented in the civil legislation on the possible rise of the limitation period with respect to newly revealed circumstances and indicates that the Legal Affairs Committee of the Parliament should finish an active work on this direction within a reasonable period of time.

According to the statement of the lawyer of “Young Barristers”- Ana Kiknadze, the real solution in the Civil Procedure Law regarding newly discovered and newly revealed circumstances would be to renew the cases, including to define the exact solutions for cases concerning the condiscated property. The issue gains particular role in present reality, when after the parliamentary election on 1 October 2012, the executive and legislative branches of the government in Georgia has changed, the judicial reform is in progress and numerous citizens applied to the Office of the Prosecutor of Georgia, during 2004-2012, demanding to return theair illegally seized, captured or allocated real property by the political authorities. However, according to the current legislation, the statement to renew the case is inadmissible, unless 5 years have passed since the decision enter into legal force.

According to evaluations of the organization, current 5-year limitation period is serious obstacle for  citizens who were given the opportunity to restore justice after the political changes in 2012, because in most cases, since the court decision enter into legal force and when newly discovered circumstances are revealed, a 5-year limitation period is expired, which is why the victims cannot afford to apply to the court, because the court rejects their applications on the ground of limitation period.

According to evaluations of the “Young Barristers”, on the cases of illegally confiscated property one of the solutions is to increase the limitation period, which will give the public an opportunity to regain illegally confiscated property and restore the violated rights. The organization clarifies that for reopening of proceedings for the newly discovered circumstances the period of limitation would be optimal for 10 years.

The “Young barristers” addressed to the parlament with proposal to prepare a new edition of the legislative provision in June, 2014. The Parliament of Georgia responded to the appeal of the organization in October, since the “Young Barristers” has presented the research on Roland Bladadze’s case, illegally expropriated property in Adjara, where currently Chairman of the Constitutional Court, George Papuasvhili lives. In the letter of the Parliament of Georgia it is said that "the Committee on Legal Affairs actively works on he improvement of paragraph 4 of the Article 426 of Georgian Civil Procedure Code, which in the nearest future will be reflected in the legislative initiative.”



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