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Appeal Court Acquitted Beneficiary of Human Rights Center

September 2, 2015
Lela Khechoshvili, Kakheti

The Appeal Court acquitted convicted beneficiary of the lawyer of Human Rights Center in the administrative charge against him. The convicted person is Vazha Utiashvili from Gurjaani, 25-years-old. The Appeal Court discharged him from the accusation on the influence of narcotic substances as it was ruled by the district court on April 30, 2015. 

Judge Davit Narimanishvili at the Gurjaani district court found Utiashvili guilty for the violation of the Article 45 of the Administrative Code of Georgia (illegal purchase or possession of little amount of narcotic substances without the purpose of its realization or/and its usage without the doctor’s prescription). Based on the December 26, 2014 judgment the court fined Utiashvili with 500 lari.

Lawyer of Human Rights Center appealed the judgment of the Gurjaani district court at the Tbilisi Appeal Court. Judge Thea Tadashvili at the administrative chamber of the Tbilisi Appeal Court partly satisfied the lawsuit in her January 29, 2015 judgment – annulled the December 26, 2014 decision of the Gurjaani District Court on Vazha Utiashvili and forwarded the case to the district court for revision.

The lawyer clarified to humanrights.ge that the decision indicated at the violation of the norms from the joint decree №1244-№278/ნ of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Ministry of Labor, Healthcare and Social Welfare, issued on October 24, 2006, “about the rule to estimate administrative violation related with the use of narcotic and psychotropic substances,” which is normative act of the law. The court mentioned all those circumstances which were to be repeatedly studied by the first instance court.

Based on the March 9, 2015 decision Judge Davit Narimanishvili at the Gurjaani district court again found Vazha Utiashvili guilty for the violation of the Article 45 of the Administrative Code and fined him with 500 lari. The lawyer again appealed the decision at the Appeal Court.

Based on the judgment of the Judge Nino Kadagidze at the Tbilisi Appeal Court the March 9 decision of the Gurjaani district court was annulled and administrative process against Vazha Utiashvili was dropped.

The lawyer said the Court concluded that evidence on the violation was created through violation of the law requirements for what they cannot be considered as valid evidence to impose punishment on a person.

“We appealed the judgment of the Gurjaani district court against Vazha Utiashvili at the Appeal Court. We requested to acquit Utiashvili in the imposed charge but the Appeal Court just reduced his 3-year-long imprisonment term with 6 months,” the lawyer Lia Khuroshvili said.

She added that judgment of the Appeal Court was appealed at the Supreme Court of Georgia. 

On November 15, 2014 Vazha Utiashvili together with three more passengers was traveling to Tbilisi. Gurjaani district police officers stopped the taxi on the Katchreti highway and demanded Utiashvili to get off the car. They searched him and the car of the taxi-driver Aleksandre Getiashvili. According to police officers they had stopped Utiashvili based on the operative information claiming that he had narcotics. They arrested Utiashvili and took the rest as witnesses to the Katchreti police unit where the detainee was repeatedly searched. The witnesses signed testimonies and left police office. Vazha Utiashvili was arrested.

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