Category: rule of law

Will political interests interfere in mining disaster investigation?

March 3, 2010 by georgiamedia

Four Georgian miners were killed today and at least one more is in a critical condition after what is believed to be a gas explosion at Tkibuli mine in the Imereti region in the early hours of this morning.

The prime minister has announced a commission of inquiry but, in contrast to similar disasters - such as the botched demolition of the Memorial of Glory in Kutaisi - there has been no rush to find people to blame.

Instead Nika Gilauri has said that he believes there was no negligence, so appearing to prejudge the inquiry.

So, why the contrast? Could it be becuase the mine is owned by the Georgian Industrial Group, who are also major shareholders in pro-regime national TV station Rustavi 2?

The president has declared 4 March as an official day of mourning for the victims of the disaster.

Eka Beselia quits Okruashvili's party

February 23, 2010 by georgiamedia

Eka Beselia, secretary-general of Irakli Okruashvili's Movement for a United Georgia has resigned from the party and is to concentrate on campaigning to release political prisoners and creating a functioning and fair justice system in Georgia.

She said she had political differences with Okruashvili, who is in exile in France, having claimed political asylum. It is not clear if the Movement for a United Georgia has a viable future without Beselia and with Okruashvili still out of the country: he has made various promises to return but has never done so.

Beselia's son, Rati Milorava, and brother, Sergo Beselia, were jailed in Batumi in December for alleged "hooliganism" - a catch-all crime much loved by Soviet and post-Soviet prosecutors anxious to jail political opponents - which she said was a politically motivated case designed to intimidate her and through her Okruashvili. Subsequently she formed the Centre for Civil and Political Rights to campaign against political repression in Georgia.

She has also asked for her family to be granted political asylum.

Her resignation comes after several days of rumours about her future in the party - founded by the mercurial Okruashvili after he fell out, in spectacular fashion, with Mikheil Saakashvili: it was Okruashvili's interview with Imedi, where he accused Saakashvili of planning to "eliminate" political opponents that led directly to the events of 7 November 2007.

Demolition company directors jailed for Kutasi memorial tragedy

February 22, 2010 by georgiamedia

Three directors of the demolition company that destoyed the "Memorial of Glory" in Kutaisi in December have been sentenced to prison today after debris from the botched explosion killed a mother and her eight-year-old daughter as they stood in their courtyard.

The three - Avtandil Darsavelidze, Elguja Gadabadze and Tengiz Darakhvelidze -   have been jailed for breaking safety regulations. Central to the state's case was that the public were not evacuated from a wide enough area.

However the police - the public authority who carried out the evacuation and who have a duty to ensure the law is being upheld - have faced no legal sanction. Nor has there been any examination of the president's role in bringing the demolition forward to pre-empt protests against the destruction of a memorial to those who died in the war against fascism and what impact that may have had on safety preparations.

The pharisevloba of the Georgian justice system

February 21, 2010 by georgiamedia

One of the Georgian words for hypocrisy is ფარისევლობა - pharisevloba - from the Pharisees of the Christian New Testament, the "whited sepulchres" whose outward devotion to the law hides moral corruption within.

There could hardly be a better description of those parts of the Georgian legal establishment who, represented by Giorgi Shavliashvili, on Friday, held a press conference (given extensive television coverage, of course) to complain about what they said was the opposition pressure being placed on Tbilisi city court to acquit Tsotne Gamsakhurdia, son of Georgia's first president and on trial for attempted murder, firearms possession and espionage.

Gamsakhurdia protests his innocence - indeed the presumption of innocence is guaranteed by the Georgian constitution, so no law is being broken by those who similarly protest it outside the court. We have no idea who is telling the truth about the allegations made by the opposition about the handling of the case but we also know that in any system that truly delivered justice that would be for the court to decide on the basis of evidence laid before it and press conferences and TV appearances would have no role to play.

But Gamsakhurdia has also been subject to a campaign of smear and harassment by the authorities - the very opposition of the presumption of innocence.

The low point of that campaign was when the Imedi TV station, just a few weeks ago, hooked up his ex-wife, Sopo Chikviladze to a lie detector and then - on the promise of money if she could answer in such a way that meant the machine did not declare her a liar - asked her whether he was violent, was a spy and took drugs.

No protest from the courts was heard about that even though it was clearly an abuse and in many European legal systems would have ended with the TV station's executives facing a contempt of court charge. But it seems for those in the regime one sort of appeal to public opinion - to soften it up in advance of throwing someone in jail - is acceptible while another - the legal right to proclaim a defendant's innocence - are not.