Georgia: Ombudsperson and rights defenders point court's bias in Ugulava's case

The panel of the Supreme Court (SC) dealing with the Ugulava's case is now headed by Shalva Tadumadze, who was the Prosecutor General of Georgia during the investigation. The presentation by the same person of different parties in the trial is unacceptable, the Georgian Ombudsperson and NGOs have emphasized.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that the court sentenced Gigi Ugulava, one of the leaders of the "European Georgia" Party, to one year and three months in prison under the case of embezzling about 20 million US dollars, but found the sentence to have been served. On February 10, while considering the cassation complaint, the SC increased the prison term up to three years and two months. After that, the Georgian opposition refused from any negotiations with the authorities, as its leaders have treated the verdict as a political repression.

If the Ugulava's case is handed over to the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), it will be of great importance not only for Ugulava, but for the whole Georgian justice, said Nino Lomdjariya, the Georgian Ombudsperson. She pointed out that the presentation of different parties in the litigation by one and the same person is unacceptable; the ECtHR's practice shows that such a situation creates preconditions for human rights violations.

Twelve Georgian NGOs have accused the SC of bias and called on the ruling "Georgian Dream" Party to stop persecuting the opposition.

Keti Khutsishvili, the head of the NGO "Open Society Foundation-Georgia", believes that authorities are carrying out political repressions.

The US Embassy has expressed regret over the disruption of the dialogue between the government and the opposition in Georgia.