Human Rights Center (HRC) was observing the legal proceedings of the cases of 7 persons detained on November 4 at a protest rally in front of the premises of Isani District Election Commission under Article 166 (petty hooliganism) and Article 173 (disobeying the lawful request of a law enforcement officer) of the Code of Administrative Offenses.
A judge of Tbilisi City Court Judge Nino Tarashvili announced the judgment at the 4th session and terminated the proceedings only against one out of 7 persons referred as T.G.
Moreover, the judge also terminated the administrative proceedings against M.J., L.K., and G.P. for the actions under Article 166 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of Georgia, finding them liable as administrative offenders under Article 173 of the same Code. As a measure of punishment, administrative detention for 3 days and nights was imposed on the individuals.
N.K., N.B. and N.P. were found to have committed offenses under both Articles: 166 and 173 of the Code. For N.K. and N.B. the measure of punishment was administrative detention for a period of 3 days and nights, while N.P. will be in administrative detention for 5 days.
The judge declared only the operative part of the judgment and did not focus on the evidence on which she relied when arriving to the decision.
According to the HRC monitor, during the hearings the explanatory statements given by the police officers who detained the protesters were not sufficiently convincing and logically structured. Furthermore, the administrative body could not provide the body camera recordings from the police officers, except for one, which, in fact, turned out to be defective. Neither was a footage presented depicting the arrest and the offense. Because of all the above mentioned, the legality and fairness of the court decision is ultimately questioned as the judgment relies solely on the testimony of witness police officers, which is a continuation of the vicious practice established in similar cases.
The project Public Events Monitoring is supported by a US foundation National Endowment for Democracy (NED).