“The regulation is such that it applies to everyone,” — this is how Dimitri Gvritishvili, judge member of the High Council of Justice, responded to a journalist’s question about whether the ban on bringing mobile phones into courtrooms applies to journalists, prosecutors, lawyers, and attendees.

Regarding the position of the Bar Association — that the ban on bringing mobile phones into courtrooms does not apply to lawyers — Gvritishvili explained that he does not know “why this reassured lawyers” on this issue.

“I don’t know, everyone has their own opinion. I do not know why it reassured them or why they interpret the law that way,”– said Dimitri Gvritishvili.

He also noted that although everyone already knew that recording inside the courtroom was prohibited, secretly filmed videos from court hearings were still being disseminated.

“There is a storage area [in the court] because, in order to enforce the law, the phone must be stored and then returned to the owner after the hearing ends. Any technical device that can be used for recording, and which gives the possibility of obtaining and subsequently distributing illegally obtained footage — as has happened before — must be restricted.Based on this, in order to enforce the law adopted by Parliament, the High Council of Justice developed the relevant normative act.When the court is examining a case, the court should be fully focused and concentrated on the proper and lawful consideration of the case, and not on the fact that some agitated individuals present at the hearing — and in many instances live broadcasts were pouring oil on the fire — were disrupting the process.The court was spending unnecessary time and energy to neutralize these localized incidents. The public was seeing almost every day what was happening during court hearings — in the lobby, in the yard, pushing and shoving, clashes with bailiffs, etc. All of this was interfering with the proper administration of justice,”– Gvritishvili stated.