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As a result of legal aid provided by HRC, twelve persons convicted in Kintsvisi case in 2011 who were recognized as political prisoners by the Parliament of Georgia were acquitted by Tbilisi Court of Appeals. The appellate Court announced the judgment on September 23, 2022.

 

According to the judgments from July 2011, 24 persons convicted in Kintsvisi case were accused of the action under Article 315(1) of the Criminal Code envisaging the conspiracy to change the constitutional order of Georgia through violence, to overthrow the government or seize the state power. 

 

Due to the gross and obvious violations identified in the case, further due to the facts of torture and inhuman treatment, the obvious political motives in the investigation, HRC was the initiator of the proceedings so that the participants in the Kintsvisi case be granted the status of political prisoners, and in 2013 the Parliament of Georgia adopted the respective resolution.

In the following years, the offenses committed during the legal proceedings in the above case against the persons convicted became even more apparent. In this regard, the judgment by the European Court of Human Rights in the case Nikoloz Goguadze v. Georgia is particularly noteworthy.

In Kintsvisi case, following the petition by HRC to review the case and render the judgment of acquittal, Tbilisi Court of Appeals rendered the judgment of acquittal against twelve former political prisoners. In the same 2021, as a result of legal aid provided by HRC, the Department of the Offenses Committed during Legal Proceedings within the Office of Prosecutor General petitioned Tbilisi Court of Appeals to review the judgments of conviction rendered against twelve persons and pass the judgment of acquittal against them.

Eka Kobesashvili, a lawyer within HRC has been defending the legal interests of persons acquitted by the Court of Appeals. 

 

The judgment of the Court of Appeals is the result of many years’ work of HRC, thus taking another major step towards the legal rehabilitation of all persons involved in Kintsvisi case.

Tbilisi City Court sentenced defendant G.L. to 2 years and 6 months in prison for perpetrating violence against a woman and domestic violence. 

G.L. had been systematically exerting physical and psychological violence against his spouse I.T. In December 2021, I.T. became again a victim of violence perpetrated by her spouse when she called the police, and an investigation was launched.

HRC was defending the legal interests of I.T., the victim of domestic abuse. 

On July 21, 2022, Gori District Court allowed in part the claim by T.B. against Iavnana JSC annulling the order dismissing T.B from office and instead ordering the company to pay compensations and lost earning to T.B.

HRC pleaded the cause of the illegally fired person in court. Iavnana JSC dismissed T.B. a person with 30 years long record of service without any prior notification on the grounds of reorganization and staff reduction. The dismissal was preceded by cutting in half the salary to T.B. without any consultations or agreement between the parties. T.B. approached HRC to defend his rights. He believed he was fired only due to his old age. During the court proceedings it came out that the employer conducting the reorganization renamed the jobs instead of reducing them in number and appointed on the position of T.B. a person younger in age. The employer failed to justify before the court the legality of the process of reorganization. 

The court found that the order of the director dismissing the employee was illegal. However, due to the fact that the position was already filled, and no equivalent job was there to be offered to T.B., the court ordered the payment of compensations and lost earnings in his favor instead of restoring him to the former position. 

On July 11, 2022, Gori District Court partially allowed the claims by T.D. and N.I. filed against Gori Abramishvili Military Hospital LEPL. The orders by the director of the hospital to dismiss T.D. and N.I. were annulled by the court. The hospital was imposed to pay lost earnings and compensations to the employees illegally fired. HRC pleaded the cause of illegally fired persons in the court.

T.D. and N.I. were members of the same household working for years in the Gori hospital. They have received numerous acknowledgements for the successful job performed. At the end of 2021, they were informed by the employer that their contracts were to be terminated and the hospital was not going to extend them, notwithstanding the fact that the employees due to their long service record were considered to be employed under open-ended labor contracts. T.D. and N.I. assumed that their dismissal was due to the fact of them leaving the ruling party and joining the newly established political party of Giorgi Gakharia. The affected persons applied to the court with a legal aid provided by HRC and the court explicitly found the unlawfulness of the dismissal, however, because there were no vacant positions left to be offered to the claimants, the court ruled the payment of compensations and lost earnings instead of restoring the claimants to the jobs. The court failed to establish the fact of discrimination on political-opinion grounds. The dispute is carried on in Tbilisi Court of Appeals in order to achieve the restoration of the victims to the same or equivalent positions and to ascertain the amount of the compensations to be paid to them. 

As a result of legal aid provided by HRC the professor at the Technical University restored her violated rights. 

Since 2010, L.A. was working at Faculty of Law and International Relations of the Technical University as an associated professor. Initially she was invited as a full professor delivering lectures and practical courses. As L.A. was active during the labor relations defending her rights and never shying away from publicly stating the problems existing in the workplace, since 2013, her supervisor had begun to discriminate her in her professional and labor rights in different manners. Finally, from 2020 her contract was no longer be extended, and she was deprived the possibility to carry on her professional activities. 

HRC was pleading the cause of V.V., the Mtavari Arkhi guard in the criminal case. 

  

On June 17, 2022, when performing his duties in the yard of Mtavari Arkhi, V.V. noticed a vehicle of Toyota Prius brand entering the yard in reverse drive. V.V. approached the driver to enquire whom he was visiting in the company, but instead he received the following response from the presumably drunk driver: “This is my neighborhood, and I am on my territory. I would go wherever I wish to.” V.V. called on the driver to leave the territory of Mtavari Arkhi and the aggressive person did so threatening V.V. to wait for him as he would be back soon. And indeed, the perpetrator was back soon next to the premises of Mtavari Arkhi shouting offensive words addressed to Mtavari Arkhi management and staff including V.V. The preparator produced a penknife striking several times at V.V. and inflicting a minor injury to his left arm. The perpetrator was removed from the territory of Mtavari Arkhi but every time he managed to return. Finally, he smashed his car to the left side of the gate and boom barrier of the yard of Mtavari Arkhi. Afterwards, he was detained by the police and was taken to the pre-trial detention facility. 

On October 12, 2022, Tbilisi City Court approved the plea agreement between the prosecution and defendant in the criminal case with the consent of the victim. Under the plea agreement, the defendant admits his guilt and agrees with the prosecution on the terms of the punishment. As agreed between the parties, a judgment of conviction was rendered against the defendant. 

I.R. approached HRC seeking aid when he was charged by the Ministry of Interior of committing an offense under Article 166 of the Code of Administrative Offenses. In particular, a protest rally was near the Museum of Art in Tbilisi. Citizens gathered there protesting the removal of Ancha Icon from the museum. When the Ancha Icon was being moved the protesters confronted the police. One of the protesters lied down in front of the van transporting the icon. I.R. was trying to help the lied person to be removed from under the vehicle so the van would not run over him and at that very moment the police detained I.R. for disobeying the instructions of the police. 

At the hearing of the administrative case in Tbilisi City Court on July 15, 2022, the police produced video camera recordings depicting only the moment of arrest of I.R. The video footage failed to show the police giving some kind of instructions or voicing some kind of request towards I.R. The court abstained from imposing a fine on I.R. as requested by the MoI representative and issued only a verbal reprimand to I.R.

On July 4, 2022, Tbilisi Court of Appeals rejected the appellate complaint lodged by the Ministry of Economy and Sustainable Development of Georgia. The judgement rendered by Tbilisi City Court was upheld annulling the orders by the Minister of Economy dismissing in turn D.G. and D.Ch. from office and assigning the Ministry to study the circumstances in full and issue new orders. The pleadings are carried on in the Supreme Court in the part of rejecting the appellate complaints lodged by the employees. HRC is pleading the cause of illegally fired employees in court.

On July 7, 2022, Tbilisi Court of Appeals rejected the appellate complaint by the Livelihood Agency LEPL and upheld the judgment by Tbilisi City Court allowing the administrative claim of IDP E.Z. and thus annulling the refusal issued by the Livelihood Agency to provide a dwelling to E.Z. and instructing the Agency instead to provide E.Z. with a long-term dwelling. HRC pleaded the cause of E.Z. in court.

A citizen affected by hail will receive subsidies

According to the ruling by the Supreme Court of Georgia, the cassation complaint by Rural Development Agency NNLE was found inadmissible vis-à-vis Kh.I. affected by hail. The Supreme Court upheld the judgments by Gori District Court and Tbilisi Appellate Court respectively allowing the claim by the affected Kh.I. and ordering the Agency to issue subsidies to him. Despite the fact that Kh.I. was a person affected by hail, the Agency unjustifiably denied him compensations against which Kh.I. lodged a claim with Gori District Court. HRC was pleading the cause of Kh.I. in the court. 

HRC is pleading the cause of Jordan citizen P.Kh.A.A.. On May 31, 2022, P.Kh.A.A. applied to the State Services Development Agency under the Ministry of Justice and requested a permanent residence permit. The Agency adopted a decision on June 29, 2022, refusing the permanent residence permit to P.Kh.A.A. referring to Article 18(a)(c) of the Law of Georgia on Legal Status of Aliens and Stateless Persons implying the cases (a) where there is an opinion issued by an authorised body stating and/or the interests of public security commend that granting a person the Georgian residency is unreasonable; (c) a person is engaged in the activities threating the state security and/or public order of Georgia. 

The opinion is issued by the State Security Service of Georgia. Such opinions are issued in a blanket manner for similar cases. Only judges are authorised to study the opinion. 

 On October 19, 2022, June 15, 2021, Tbilisi City Court granted in part the claim of P.Kh.A.A. annulling the refusal issued by the State Services Development Agency to grant the person permanent residency and instructing the Agency instead to study the case and issue a new legal act. 

On July 25, 2022, the dispute between O.G. and L.G. ended in a settlement. O.G. argued that the lender L.G. made him sign a rent-to-own lease agreement instead of a mortgage agreement. O.G. was demanding to declare the agreement null and void, while L.G. was demanding O.G. to be evicted from the single dwelling. The dispute originating in 2012 was resolved by means of an amicable settlement with the parties concluding a purchase agreement on the disputed real estate according to which in consideration of the payment of the agreed sum, L.G. passed the title over the disputed house to the grandchild of O.G. HRC had been pleading the cause of O.G. since 2016.

    Following the petition by HRC of July 2022, the General Inspection Office of the Ministry of Interior issued a sever reprimand to an investigator. In order to react to the fact of violation of his rights, citizen M.A. approached a police station where he was met by a police officer failing to provide him with a qualified assistance. Because of the fact, HRC applied to the General Inspection Office of MoI to initiate disciplinary proceedings against the police officer. 

    On August 5, 2022, judge Manuchar Tsatsua from Administrative Matters Panel within Tbilisi City Court terminated proceedings against citizen T.N. because of insufficient evidence. MoI was charging T.N. of committing an offense under Article 173 of the Code of Administrative Offenses, in particular for verbal assault of a law enforcement office while he/she was performing the duties.