The Council of Europe responses to the research published in October 2014 by the “Young Barristers”, according to which the Chairman of the Constitutional Court of Georgia Giorgi Papuashvili lives in illegally deprived house in Adjara after the “Rose Revolution”. As it is stated in the 28 November 2014  letter of Dirk Schuebel – the Head of Division of Directorate Russia, Eastern Partnership, and Central Asia Regional Cooperation & OSCE of European Council, deprived property cases is one of the challenge that need an adequate response from the Georgian government.

“Your research and legal analysis on illegally deprived property cases in the Adjara region contributes to a better understanding of the practices of alleged involuntary transfer of property to the State that were equally raised in several hundred complaints by Georgian citizens after the government change in 2012. The affected citizens in their complaints claimed that they were forced to transfer their properties under pressure. Dealing with and finding adequate response to injustices of the past is indeed one of the challenges that need an adequate response from the Georgian government, which publically declared that the “restoration of justice” and fight against impunity are among its priorities. This is not an easy task and a professional association like yours can play an important role in this regard by providing independent legal analysis” – said in the letter of Dirk Schuebel towards the “Young Barristers”, which also indicates the statement of the EU Special Advisor to Georgia, Thomas Hammarberg, that the state should elaborate a compensation strategy for effective decisions for deprived property cases.

For more information: According to the published research of the “Young Barristers”, the Chairman  of  the  Constitutional  Court  of  Georgia  -  Giorgi  Papuashvili  lives  in  illegally deprived house in Adjara after the “Rose Revolution”. The issue is related to the case, the history of which became known to broad society first time. In particular, the monitoring reports the case of Roland Bladadze, whose property was deprived illegally against his will, in 2004 and in 2007, the former President of Georgia, Mikheil Saakashvili transferred the deprived property to the Chairman of the Constitutional Court of Georgia for symbol price - 1000 Gel.

The “Young Barristers”, in the boundaries of implemented monitoring, has alreadyappeales  to the executive, legislative and   judicial authorities of Georgia with  package ofrecommendations. English version of the research has already been sent to the diplomaticrepresentatives in Georgia,  to  the Constitutional Courts of 20 European countries, to theVenice Commission and international organizations.

The first response on the case from the European institutions was from the European Parliament, which on the 10 November 2014, also sent a letter to the organization and clearly stated, that Roland Bladadze case is specific and the State should have an adequate real solution regarding the issue.