CoE concerned about the victim status of Georgian ex-top official Merabishvili
By Gvantsa Gabekhadze
Monday, June 10
The Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe (CoE), a decision-making body, says that they are concerned by the decision of Tbilisi City Court not to grant a victim status to currently imprisoned former Interior Minister of Georgia Vano Merabishvili regarding his possible taking out from a cell in 2013 “to influence him to cooperate with the investigation.”
“We request the authorities to re-examine the applicant’s victim status,” the committee says.
The concern comes in the report of the Committee of Ministers on the execution of the judgment of the European Court of Humans Rights (ECHR) on the case Merabishvili v Georgia delivered in 2017.
In its judgment, the court did not say that Merabishvili’s pre-trial detention was unfair in 2013, under the Georgian Dream leadership, but said that Merabishvili’s possible taking out from the cell could be the violation and the episode must have been reinvestigated.
The Committee of Ministers welcomed in its report that the reinvestigation was launched and Merabishvili had access to case materials.
The committee also welcomed the decree of the Minister of Justice of Georgia on extending the current five-day time-limit for retention of surveillance videos to 30 days in all prisons, as there was no footage which could have confirmed that Merabishvili was forced to leave his cell.
The Georgian Justice Ministry says that the committee did not consider the requests of Merabishvili’s lawyer at all to discuss the issue of the release of ex-Interior Minister.
Merabishvili, who served as Prime Minister and Interior Minister of Georgia under the previous state leadership, was arrested in May 2013 after the current ruling Georgian Dream defeated the previous leading power, the United National Movement (UNM) party, in the 2012 parliamentary race.
Merabishvili was charged with faking documents, misspending budgetary funds, and alleged exceeding his power in connection with three different notorious cases.
In February 2014, a Georgian court found Merabishvili guilty on the charge of exceeding his official power, and he was sentenced to four years and six months in prison.
The applicant alleged that his pre-trial detention had not been governed by clear legal rules and was unreasonable.
Merabishvili also claimed his pre-trial detention served the purpose of excluding him from the political life of the country, as he was appointed Secretary General of the United National Movement after the 2012 parliamentary elections and intended to participate in the 2013 presidential elections.
ECHR’s held in 2017 that Georgia was to pay Merabishvili 4,000 euros (EUR) in respect of nonpecuniary damage and EUR 8,000 for costs and expenses.
The government paid the money.
The opposition says that Merabishvili is a political prisoner.
