19:00, 5 October 2011

In Georgia, court considers appeal against Bitsadze's verdict

Today, at the first court session, which considers the appeal against the sentence passed to Badri Bitsadze, the ex-head of the Frontier Police of Georgia, the introductory word of the defence was pronounced.

The defence demands to cancel the conviction to Badri Bitsadze, under which he was sentenced to 5.5 years of imprisonment for organizing an attack on policemen during the crackdown of the oppositional action in Tbilisi on May 26.

"If the Court of Appeal is really objective, it should dismiss the verdict of the first instance," said Levan Samushia, Mr Bitsadze's advocate.

At the next session of the Tbilisi Court of Appeal scheduled for October 6 the floor will be given to the prosecutor for his introduction. The court will also consider the motion of the defence asking to question the Chair of the National Assembly Nona Gaprindashvili as a witness, the "News-Georgia" reports.

"We demand to question Ms Gaprindashvili as a witness, because all the other defence witnesses had been questioned at the city court," the "Georgia Online" quotes Mr Samushia as saying.