Human Rights

Gela Mtivlishvili

Georgia’s of Defense has filed suit against hundreds of former soldiers for breaking contract. “Former military soldiers signed the contract, and accordingly   if they break it must pay a fine.    The amount of fine is very high and it includes additional fees for every overdue day. Often soldiers must pay 30-40 thousand GEL,” said - the lawyer of Human Rights Center’s Gori office, Lia Khuroshvili.

   According to her, in the Telavi city court there are plenty of such kinds of cases and the Ministry of Defense wins the majority of the time. There has only been a handful of cases military solder has won.

“Former military soldiers now are discouraged and don’t apply to go to court, because they know will lose anyway” said the lawyer. For example, if you signed a 4 years contract and you decide you leave the service you will not considered as a deserter but rather as in breach of contract.

,,I won one case because the solder served in the military service less than one year and - in the contract it detailed that the fine was only for those who served in the service for at least for one year. The lawyer said that after the Ministry of Defense lost a few cases because of the certain technicality, they drafted new article in the contract and now read ,,in the case of until one year and over one year…” There is also a provision    ,, Those who signed such kind contracts will have to pay the money” said- Khuroshvili.

The Human Rights Center has evaluated the contract between the Ministry of Defense and the military soldiers as mindless. ,, These contracts contain obviously discriminating articles and are against the law. For example article 7.3 provides an excessive fine. Also, in the same article, it says that the military soldier will not argue about this quantity. This article practically forbids arguing about the conditions of contract and it is unlawful. The people don’t have the possibility to protect his/her rights. This is against human rights that are promised in the Constitution of Georgia and other international laws.” said the lawyer.

The Ministry of Defense is using its authority unlawfully: - Under the contract the fine is paid- for each overdue day. The Ministry of Defense is guilty party because it only applied to court after three years had passed.   It is clear that the Ministry of Defense was waiting for the time when the fine would simply be significantly higher.

It should be mentioned that most of those contracts were signed when Okruashvili was the, - head of Ministry of Defense.

The head of the press service for the Ministry of Defense said that the law says what is lawful and what is not.

,,If someone can’t agree with something, - there is a court and the court will decide who is right. I am not a judge,” –said Makharadze.

Military expert, Giorgi Tavdgiridze, said that the changes made by Okruashvili, which contained a fine for breaking the contract, are of course absurd and that he opposes them.

,,In every normal country the military service is not based on violence. In foreign countries the state takes obligations under the contract and also offers different kinds of social programs to their military soldiers. In foreign countries, military soldiers have high bonuses, free education, cars, etc. That’s why they don’t break the contract, not because that they are afraid of the fines.”

,,The reason for this problem is that in our country we have low standards for selecting the staff. Everything starts with this. When the person comes to you, you should analyze whether psychologically he/she is ready for military service or not. So we will ensure ourselves for the fines. “said – Tavdgiridze.

When we asked how many complaints are against military solders from the Ministry of Defense, the city court of Telavi answered us that for this information – we would need to apply to the court with a written statement.

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