PACE calls on Georgian authorities to abandon "politically motivated justice"

On October 1, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) considered the report on the situation in Georgia. During the debates, participants of the PACE session claimed that the Georgian authorities use "politically motivated justice".

During the PACE session, Latvian MP Boris Tsilevich and Danish MP Michael Jensen, the authors of the report "Functioning of democratic institutions of Georgia", stated that after the parliamentary elections, Georgia enjoyed positive changes; however, the country "still has a long way to go" to improve its democratic institutions. This was reported by the PACE website on October 1.

According to Georgian non-commercial organizations mentioned in the PACE report, about 2000 employees of ministries, departments and local administrations were dismissed, "presumably, for political reasons, apart from other reasons." Furthermore, in the course of the debates on the report, Tony Cox, an MP from the Netherlands, called on the Georgian authorities to abandon the use of "politically motivated justice", including in the case against Mikhail Saakashvili, the former Georgian President.

In their turn, members of the "Georgian Dream" Party have stated that the legal proceedings against members of the opposition have no political motives.

"We will never accept the fact that anyone in Georgia could be above the law," said during debates Ekaterina Beseliya, one of the leaders of the "Georgian Dream" Party, the head of the Parliamentary Committee on Human Rights.

"In our country, the justice is independent, and courts make decisions on their own. How the PACE can enlist specific names in the resolution? This fact violates the principle that no one is entitled to interfere with the decision of the court," Ekaterina Beseliya as expressed her indignation in the course of the debates at the PACE session, the newspaper "Kommersant" reports today.

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.