Tbilisi City Court denies allegations of restricting ex-pres. Saakashvili's right to protection
Saakashvili, who was convicted in absentia in 2018, currently is serving his sentence, while Kezerashvili and Adeishvili are on run and Ugulava is engaged in political activities. Photo: Nino Alavidze/Agenda.ge.
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Tbilisi City Court has denied the accusations of former Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili’s legal team that the court restricted the ex-president’s right to protection by banning his two lawyers from attending the trial on November 10.
The case of the opposition rally dispersal in November 2007 in Tbilisi and the illegal raid of TV channel Imedi was reviewed in the court against Saakashvili and several other former officials.
The court states that lawyer Shota Tutberidze, along with Beka Basilaia, who defends the interests of Saakashvili since 2015, had an order to attend the court, therefore, two other attorneys were denied the attendance as they did not have such documentation.
The court also says that they appealed to the Special Penitentiary Service of Georgia before the trial took place, however, the body did not allow the ex-president to attend the process due to a ‘risk of deterioration in the health.’
Thousands gathered at Tbilisi City Court today in solidarity with politically persecuted ex-Pres @SaakashviliM who was denied by Ivanishvili's authoritarian regime the right to attend his own trial in gross violation of ???????? Constitution & the European Convention on Human Rights pic.twitter.com/WOyoPSvmmV
— UNM Georgia (ენმ) (@UNMGeorgia) November 10, 2021
It also emphasised that no evidence was examined at the hearing yesterday, noting that ‘the absence of the defendant in the courtroom, does not prevent the court from discussing the above-mentioned issue.’
Due to the high public interest, despite the restriction of the access to the court session because of the pandemic, the process was attended by observers from local and international organisations, representatives of the Georgian Public Defender and the Embassy of Ukraine,” Tbilisi City Court reports.
Along with the ex-president Saakashvili, former Tbilisi Mayor Gigi Ugulava, former Defence Minister David Kezerashvili, ex-Interior Minister Ivane Merabishvili and former Prosecutor General Zurab Adeishvili are accused in the case of rally dispersal and raid of Imedi TV.
Saakashvili, who was convicted in absentia in 2018, currently is serving his sentence, while Kezerashvili and Adeishvili are on run and Ugulava is engaged in political activities.