Parliament Speaker on ECHR’s opposition leader arrest ruling: “another victory” for reputation of Georgia’s judicial system

Georgian Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili on Thursday said today’s ruling of the European Court of Human Rights, which confirming the legitimacy of the 2019 arrest and detention of opposition leader Nika Melia, was “yet another victory” for the reputation of the country’s judicial system.

In his remarks over the matter, Papuashvili said the Court’s latest judgement had made it “exceedingly clear” that UNM’s former Chair Melia’s arrest for incitement to violence during protests in Tbilisi had been both legal and legitimate. 

“In particular, the ECHR ruled that there has been no violation of the articles of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, and Melia’s arrest was legal and contained no signs of political motivation whatsoever”, Papuashvili said.

“This clear judgement is yet another victory for the reputation of Georgia’s judicial system, whose decisions, in the last few cases, have been endorsed by successive ECHR rulings”, he continued.

The chief Georgian legislator added the judgement had also showed that “some of our partners’ harsh criticism” of Melia’s arrest had been “hasty and short-sighted”. 

“This unfounded criticism, unfortunately, contributed to a cycle of self-perpetuating wave of never-ending misperceptions about Georgia. And, finally, such premature judgements from some of our partners further deepen political polarisation in Georgia, and harm our prospects of European and Euro-Atlantic integration, because such statements encourage the radicals in the opposition, like Melia, to further radicalise [the environment], causing an even more damaging polarisation”, he noted. 

Earlier today the Ministry of Justice of Georgia said the court’s ruling “proved” Melia's arrest and preventative detention - during demonstrations sparked by the presence of Russian MPs in the Georgian Parliament - had been “both legal and in complete accordance” with European Convention on Human Rights standards.