Address of Human Rights Center about the Case of Deacon Giorgi Mamaladze

Human Rights Center believes it was illegal to expel the lawyers of Deacon Giorgi Mamaladze from the courtroom and to appoint state-funded lawyer instead. 

On May 19, substantial hearing into the accused Giorgi Mamaladze’s case was held in the Tbilisi City Court. Three lawyers – Giorgi Pantsulaia, Mia Zoidze and Mikheil Ramishvili defended his interests during the hearing. His fourth lawyer Eka Lomidze from Human Rights Center could not attend the hearing because of health problems. Eka Lomidze is legal representative of the accused deacon and she attended previous hearings at the court. Consequently, the judge in charge of the case was informed about it. 

On May 19, the accused Giorgi Mamaladze protested complete closure of his case hearings in the court and left the courtroom in protest. He called on his lawyers to follow him as he did not want the process to continue in a closed manner.  

The lawyers made individual statements to clarify the reasons of their decision to leave the session in order not to demonstrate disrespect towards the court. They clarified that in accordance to the Criminal Procedure Code and Ethic Code of Lawyers, the lawyer defends and represents the interests of the accused person and acts in accordance to his/her will. The lawyer does not have right to make decision without the client’s content and resist his/her will. Consequently, after Deacon Giorgi Mamaladze left the courtroom, they could not continue his defense against his will and the Ethic Code of Lawyers. Before leaving the session, the lawyers, within framework of their competence, offered Giorgi Mamaladze to stay in the courtroom but he refused.

While the lawyers were leaving the courtroom, the judge, without additional clarifications and verification of legal grounds, announced that they were expelled from the courtroom. Nevertheless, after the lawyers’ clarification, the judge had enough time and opportunity to consider the issue of expelling the lawyers from the courtroom that did not happen. Similar developments of the situation in the courtroom raise questions about legality of the judge’s decisions. 

At the same time, although Deacon Giorgi Mamaladze has the fourth lawyer Eka Lomidze, the judge appointed the state-funded lawyer for him that substantially violated the right of Eka Lomidze to defend the accused person.

Human Rights Center states that at the May 19 court hearing the judge disparaged the fact that the lawyers acted in respect to the Ethic Code of Lawyers and Criminal Procedure Code of Georgia when they left the court room, they acted in accordance to the will of their client and could not act otherwise. 

At the same time, the court did not consider the fact that Deacon Giorgi Mamaladze has the fourth attorney, Eka Lomidze, lawyer at Human Rights Center, who could not participate in the May 19 court hearing because of health problems but participated in the previous hearings as a legal representative of the accused. The court could appoint the state-funded attorney for the accused person if there were no more lawyers in the case. This particular decision of the judge raises questions about the legality of the process.

Human Rights Center believes the court shall consider the case of Deacon Giorgi Mamaladze in due respect to the principle of fair trial so that objective observer had no questions about the respect of equality of arms and adversarial hearing in the process of court hearings. 

Human Rights Center