Georgian Democracy Initiative expresses concern about the detention of the former Mayor of Tbilisi and the Head of the Election Headquarters of an opposition party, Gigi Ugulava, and the events that followed the detention, which are made extraordinary by the pre-election context, and calls on the law enforcement bodies to act in accordance with the principle of the rule of law and to investigate each fact of violation of rights effectively and in a timely manner.
On July 3, 2014, Gigi Ugulava was detained in Tbilisi International Airport from which he was going to depart. G. Ugulava was charged with legalization of unlawful income (money laundering) to which charges of coercion of the Head of the Marneuli District Election Commission and organization of group violence were later added. According to the Chief Prosecutor’s Office, G. Ugulava’s detention was caused by an emergency situation, and it made it possible to prevent the defendant’s hiding from law enforcement bodies.
We believe that there were no grounds for detaining Gigi Ugulava. The Prosecutor’s Office knew that, despite the charges brought against him in two criminal cases, G. Ugulava had left the territory of Georgia several times, though he always showed up at every court hearing in a timely manner and obeyed all demands of law enforcement bodies. It should be noted that several days before the detention, the Tbilisi City Court had refused to satisfy a motion of the Prosecutor’s Office about imposing bail on G. Ugulava as a measure of restraint in a case related to other charges. The court had also found that there were no grounds for suspending the passport of the defendant.
According to news reports, for some time after the detention, G. Ugulava was not allowed to meet with his lawyer, which is a gross violation of the detainee’s rights.
As G. Ugulava is the Head of the Election Headquarters of the main opposition party and is taking an active part in the pre-election processes, bringing charges against him and his detention has violated the moratorium announced by the authorities for the pre-election period according to which the authorities took the obligation not to carry out any legal procedures against persons who are actively engaged in pre-election campaigns. The violation of the moratorium and the detention of the Head of the Election Headquarters of the opposition party a week before the elections are clearly going to reflect negatively on the election environment. The Chairperson of the Central Election Commission has also responded to the aforementioned facts and released a special statement.
The detention of Gigi Ugulava was followed by an active protest by members and supporters of the United National Movement on the area adjacent to the Tbilisi City Court where the police mobilized in response to the protest decided to detain several protesters. During the enforcement of the aforementioned decision, the police used force and several citizens sustained injuries. One of them was transferred to Gudushauri National Medical Center where he was diagnosed with brain concussion and the lying regimen was prescribed for him. In spite of the aforementioned, representatives of the law enforcement body detained the aforementioned person in the hospitaland transferred him to a police station, which was not necessary, particularly due to his health condition, and a danger of deterioration of his health condition emerged.
It should also be noted that the persons detained near the building of the Tbilisi City Court included MP Levan Bezhashvili. According to the Constitution of Georgia, a member of the Parliament may only be detained with the consent of the Parliament, except in the cases when he/she is caught while committing a crime. Due to the fact that, in the given case, Levan Bezhashvili was not charged with a crime, his detention is unlawful, contradicts the Constitution, and constitutes an offence.
The aforementioned circumstances allow a part of the society to justly doubt that G. Ugulava’s detention was politically motivated.
Proceeding from all the aforementioned, we call on the Chief Prosecutor’s Office of Georgia to study the aforementioned facts, including facts of crimes, and respond adequately.
