Judges and people to respect each other’s rights
By Tatia Megeneishvili
Tuesday, September 22
The Chairman of Parliament Davit Usupashvili addressed both the public and judges to respect human rights.
The statement came after the Constitutional Court of Georgia made a verdict on September 18 that the ex-Mayor of Tbilisi, Gigi Ugulava, should be released from 14-month pre-trial detention, as only a nine-month pre-trial detention period was lawful.
A group of people protested before the houses of the Constitutional Court judges and the head of the Constitutional Court Giorgi Papuashvili said the judges were being suppressed.
Usupashvili stated that people have a right to demonstrate if they wish and it does not contradict basic human rights.
On the other hand, Usupashvili asked people to respect the court solution and did not hinder the normal functioning of the independent institution.
The Parliament Speaker also responded to the opposition United National Movement (UNM) when they claimed that Ugulava, who was sent back to prison after one day of release, was a subject of political persecution.
Usupashvili stressed that the current Government of Georgia has made a huge step to achieve the court independence and human rights protection, when the issues were ignored under the UNM leadership.
“Before talking about human rights, you should take a look not at the last three years, but at last ten, and you will see what a huge step the country has made in this field,” stated Usupashvili.
The United States Embassy also made a comment about Ugulava.
The embassy stressed that they were closely observing the situation over ex-officials.
In its previous statement, with the EU representation, the embassy stressed that the release of Ugulava from pre-trial detention was a positive outcome.
Ugulava is facing several corruption and money laundering related charges. Now he is in prison once again, as Tbilisi City Court found him guilty in one of the charges and sentenced him back to prison for 4 years and 6 months, after one day of release from pre-trial detention.
