“The OSCE/ODIHR mission is unable to attend court proceedings due to a series of violations,” said Lasha Tsutskiridze, a lawyer for those detained during the ongoing protest rallies.
He was responding to a statement by Giorgi Burjanadze, a member of the coalition “My Voice for the EU,” who noted that “‘Georgian Dream’ is not granting OSCE/ODIHR the necessary permission to conduct monitoring of political prisoners’ cases.”
According to Tsutskiridze, if observers were allowed to attend the hearings, they would see that the defendants are not afforded the right to a fair trial.
“It should be noted that the OSCE/ODIHR mission consists of practitioners, scholars, and lawyers from across Europe. Accordingly, if it is a government-invited delegation tasked with monitoring the progress of court proceedings, restricting their right to attend these processes cannot, under any circumstances, be considered a legitimate restriction. If the law is interpreted in a way that restricts a person’s attendance through photo, video, or audio means, this should not automatically mean that the OSCE/ODIHR observation mission’s attendance at the processes is restricted. We file motions during the proceedings stating that the principle of publicity is being violated, including because the media is not allowed to conduct video broadcasts. Naturally, an integral part of publicity is when the OSCE/ODIHR observation mission is not given the opportunity to attend the proceedings. We know very well that not only are convictions based on non-existent evidence, leading to guilty verdicts against individuals, but during substantive hearings, none of the defendants, who have the right to a fair trial, receive it. This includes restrictions on questioning, motions, interim decisions, or unfulfilled recusal motions. All of these are components of a fair trial. These violations are observed in every process, and even the attendance of the OSCE/ODIHR mission at a single proceeding would reveal that not only is the right to a fair trial generally restricted for defendants, but in each process, a series of interim decisions violates the right to a fair trial. It is precisely because of these violations that they are unable to attend,” Tsutskiridze stated.