Hearing of Complaint by the May 26 Affected Journalists Ceased

Tbilisi City Court ceased the hearing of the case of publication of the punishment order for those police officers that participated in the dispersal of the rally organized by the opposition on May 26, 2011.

According to the way representative of the Ministry of Home Affairs suggested during the legal trial of February 11, the Interior Minister hadn’t classified the aforementioned information. Hence, the Ministry doesn’t possess the information regarding the order of the information classification.

The affected journalists, legally aided by GYLA Media Legal Defense Center, lodged a complaint against the Ministry of Internal Affairs on March 5, 2012. The journalists demanded the order of the Ministry to be publicized.

According to Natia Kapanadze, Head of GYLA Media Legal Defense Center, the journalists appealed the court so that the Ministry of Internal Affairs issued the details of classification of the former Minister Vano Merabishvili’s order from July 14, 2011, and, thus, publicized it.

“ The Ministry’s stance over the matter remained unaltered during the whole period. The Ministry’s representative presented the document at the request of the court, that bore no stamp of classified information,” – she reported to Media.Ge. As suggested by Kapanadze, the court ceased the dispute after the presentation of the information, as the request for publication was irrelevant and the person classified didn’t exist.

Based on the July 14, 2012 order issued by former Interior Minister Vano Merabishvili 16 officers of the Ministry were penalized due to the excessive use of power in relation to the May 26 case.

Gela Bochikashvili, www.media.ge