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Statement of NGOs regarding Persecution of Lawyers by the Prosecutor’s Office

September 26, 2020
 
On September 22, 2020, the Prosecutor's Office of Georgia issued a statement saying that an investigation has been launched into the facts of fabrication of the photo materials published by lawyer Mikheil Ramishvili who provides attorney services to the family of 23-year-old deceased programmer Tamar Bachaliashvili having been dead under suspicious circumstances. The lawyer published the photo materials in relation to the investigation into the death of Bachaliashvili.  On September 25, Davit Purtskhvanidze, a person serving as a source of information for lawyer Mikheil Ramishvili, was arrested. The Prosecutor’s Office brought charges against him for fabricating the evidence and for hindering the justice through submitting false data doing so for a personal gain.

According to the statement by the Prosecutor's Office, the opinion of the forensic examination carried out on the satellite photos proved that the photos were fake confirming, in turn, the fact that this was an attempt to deliberately mislead the investigation and the public, further confirming the fact of falsification of evidence, and because of these facts, - the statement provides, - they have begun to respond on the issue by initiating legal proceedings.  

Moreover, according to the statement, the Investigation Division of Tbilisi Prosecutor's Office has launched an investigation into the facts of falsification of evidence and unauthorized access to  computer systems, the acts punishable under paragraph 1 of Article 284 of the Criminal Code of Georgia and under paragraph 1 of Article 3691 of the Criminal Code.

A number of procedural actions were carried out within the framework of the investigation, including the one that was based on the court ruling allowing to seize from Mikheil Ramishvili's cell phone the information regarding the communication between Ramishvili and Davit Purtskhvanidze, the data of receipt of so called satellite photos and other data significant to the investigation.  

Following the investigation, Mikheil Ramishvili, the lawyer of the family of Tamar Bachaliashvili and Eka Kobesashvili, a lawyer within Human Rights Center were summoned for questioning by the investigative agency. The HRC lawyer was involved in the case since September 7 in order to facilitate the identification of objective truth on the case and to monitor the investigative actions. 

As the Prosecutor's Office, acting within the newly launched investigation into the falsification of evidence, has interrogated the family lawyer of Tamar Bachaliashvili by the magistrate judge, have seized the personal cell phone of Mikheil Ramishvili, this may be deemed as a deliberate attempt to use justice for other purposes, namely to influence the position of the family of Bachaliashvili and their attorney.

While the prosecutor's office has severed the case of satellite photos into separate criminal proceedings from the case of Tamar Bachaliashvili, this still cannnot change the fact that the reaction of the prosecutor's office followed the public announcement by Ramishvili on the case of Bachaliashvili. Therefore, such an action on the part of the prosecutor’s office is a dangerous precedent and can be considered as a deliberate step by the law enforcement agencies against lawyers, - the action that in the recent past was actively used to persecute and punish lawyers.

Confidential and privileged communication between the defense counsel and the client is a core of fair trial. We believe that the fact of seizure of the personal cell phone of lawyer Mikheil Ramishvili is also a dangerous precedent showing the interference by the prosecutor’s office into the activities of lawyers, and showing the brutal ignorance of the privileged right of communication between the lawyer and the client, which may in the future have detrimental consequences on the lawyer's activities.

We call on the Prosecutor's Office of Georgia to stay within legal boundaries, to stop immediately any forms of interference into the activities of lawyers and to respect the professional independence of lawyers. 

  • Human Rights Center (HRC),
  • Georgian Democratic Initiative (GDI),
  • Institute for Democracy Research (DRI),
  • Union SAPARI,
  • Transparency International - Georgia (TI)
  • Institute for Development of Freedom of Information (IDFI),
  • Rights Georgia (RG)
  • Initiative for Rehabilitation of Vulnerable Groups (RIVG)

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