The Georgian NGO “Young Barristers” makes a special statement about the decision made by the Constitutional Court of Georgia on September 16, 2015 and talks about the issue of legal liability of the President of the Constitutional Court of Georgia, Giorgi Papuashvili.

Archil Kaikatsishvili, the Head of the organization states, that Georgian public society didn’t expect that the Constitutional Court of Georgia would publish its decision over the case “Citizen Giorgi Ugulava vs the Parliament of Georgia” through violation of law. Article 43 of the Organic Law of Georgia on the Constitutional Court of Georgia says, that “an act of the Constitutional Court shall be signed by all members of the Constitutional Court participating in the consideration of the case”. However, in the case mentioned above, the Court published its decision with only 8 signatures, instead of 9 of those judges participating in the consideration of cases; meaning the decision was made in violation of law. 

“Young Barristers” believes, that the legitimacy of the decision mentioned above should be questioned. The decision of the constitutional court is final and can’t be appealed. It is likely, that the Head of the Constitutional Court of Georgia has fulfilled political tasks and created political precedent adjusted to the narrow interest of certain political party. Unfortunately, other judges of the Constitutional Court agreed to Papuashvili’s opinion and thus they have also been involved in the violation of law. Besides, the court created non-collegial environment, when Merab Turava was not given reasonable time to get acquainted with the concept of the decision. Mr. Kaikatsishvili thinks, that Merab Turava is likely to pay high price for his approaches – Giorgi Papuashvili will execute his political task through Merab Turava’s decision to leave.  

Archil Kaikatsishvili considers, that the decision of the Constitutional Court declaring disputed norm unconstitutional, doesn’t automatically recognize the custody of the former Tbilisi Mayor, Gigi Ugulava, illegal. The 9month term of detention had been prolonged when the disputed norm was operating and Penitential Establishment cannot release the prisoner, Gigi Ugulava without the relevant decision of Tbilisi City Court. The Constitutional Court’s decision refers to the definition of the norm and doesn’t refer to the imprisonment or release of one particular prisoner. After enforcement of this decision, it is inadmissible to prolong the term of pre-trial detention more than 9 months, however, since this decision was made over Gigi Ugulava’s case, it means, that we have one particular case of the prisoner with illegally prolonged terms of pretrial imprisonment. As it is provided in the article 206 of the Criminal Code Procedure of Georgia, the party should file a motion to the court with the request to cancel imprisonment.

Archil Kaikatsishvili believes, that the Constitutional Court of Georgia appeared to be involved in the political confrontation and its decision was made in favor of the “United National Movement”. This will cause irreversible damage to an independent authority – judiciary and to the public trust in Giorgi Papuashvili personally. Moreover, Giorgi Papuashvili himself violates human rights and Constitution and the Government keeps silent about this. He talks about Roland Bladadz’e case, whose propery was among others, confiscated by the Government in 2004, against their will. The case is, that in 2007,  the former President, Mikheil Saakashvili gave this property to the ownership of the President of the Constitutional Court of Georgia, Giorgi Papuashvili, who still lives there together with his family.     Young Barristers is advocating this issues and the case is under investigation in the Department to Investigate Offences Committed in the Course of legal Proceedings of the Prosecutor’s Office of Georgia, however, unfortunately, no actual steps have been made so far.