17 NGOs Slam Prosecutor’s Office Statements Regarding Case of Fake IDs
Monday, November 26
The information about the illegal IDs was released by the NGOs several days ago, and they claim that Georgia’s Public Service Development Agency is printing fake ID documents in order to forge the presidential election runoff in favor of Salome Zourabichvili, a presidential candidate supported by the ruling Georgian Dream (GD) party.
“An employee of the Public Service Development Agency informed us that the Agency is allegedly producing fake identification cards. According to this employee, fake ID cards are being printed with the purpose of rigging the second round of the presidential elections in favor of Zourabichvili, and the Agency’s high-ranking officials are supervising the process,” the NGOs stressed.
The NGOs were summoned to the POG for questioning, where they refused to name the source who provided them with the information, after which the POG released a statement that NGO Transparency International Director Eka Gigauri and the lawyer of the Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association (GYLA) Irma Pavliashvili, did not name the source of their information.
The POG stated they will apply to the court and demand the questioning of Gigauri and Pavliashvili in presence with the Judge Magistrate in order to get more information about the source.
Gigauri says the law does not oblige them to name the source, saying they checked the information provided by this person and it turned out to be true.
“We made the statement about the ID cards only after verifying the provided information. Our source did not attend the meeting where it was decided to make fake IDs, this is why we did not name the person. Also, it is about the safety of our source,” she added.
According to the information released by non-governmental organizations on November 23, the statement of the Prosecutor's Office contains an indirect message about imposing criminal liability upon their colleagues.
The organizations claim the statement of the Prosecutor's Office is a warning message to NGOs working in the field of human rights and is a continuation of the “government’s recent targeted policy” against the civil sector.
“Since the "Law on Freedom of Speech and Expression" was adopted in Georgia in 2004, there has not been any state agency, which cast doubt on the rights of human rights defenders that they have right to keep in secret their source of information,” the statement reads.
"The source of professional secrecy is protected by an absolute privilege and nobody has the right to request disclosure of this source," the NGOs added.
Non-governmental sector claims that no prosecution or judicial power will ultimately be able to restrict their rights, adding they will never put the competence of any state authority before human rights.
The investigation into the case is in progress under Article 362 of the Criminal Code of Georgia.