European Parliament Resolution on the cases against opposition politicians in Georgia

Parliament resolution of 16 September 2020 on the implementation of the EU Association Agreement with Georgia concerns the legal cases against opposition politicians in Georgia, among others. Namely, the European Parliament in its resolution expresses its concern about the recent court cases against opposition politicians, which, according to the resolution,  “have undermined trust between the ruling party and the opposition, may adversely affect AA/DCFTA-related reforms and run counter to the letter and spirit of the AA”. Furthermore, the document positively assesses the presidential pardon of convicted opposition politicians.

 

As stated in the resolution, the European Parliament calls on the Georgian authorities to refrain from pursuing politically motivated legal cases and calls on the EU Delegation to monitor such trials. It further calls on Georgia to respect the highest standards of the rule of law, in particular judicial independence and the right to a fair trial, and human rights as committed to under the AA. 

 

In addition to this, the resolution calls for an investigation into all incidents of excessive use of force by Georgian law enforcement authorities against peaceful protesters and journalists, including during the June 2019 protests. 

 

The Human Rights Center fully shares the spirit of the resolution and continues to monitor the allegedly politically motivated cases in the common courts of Georgia. So far, HRC has been monitoring 20 legal cases with alleged political motivations. 

 

At the same time, on August 30th HRC presented the  interim reports on the monitoring outcomes of the allegedly politically motivated trials and protest rallies. 

 

Human Rights Center monitors the criminal cases that are allegedly politically motivated in the common courts of Georgia within the frames of the project Public Events Monitoring. The project also presupposes the monitoring of protest demonstrations. The project is supported by the National Endowment for Democracy (NED). 

 Human Rights Center