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Zaza Khatiashvili: “We Will Not Stop Only Because Mariam Ivelashvili Was Pardoned”

November 29, 2011

Chairman of the Georgian Bar Association Zaza Khataishvili stated that judicial procedures continue regarding young lawyer Mariam Ivelashvili’s case who was lately pardoned by the President of Georgia.

“Judicial procedures will definitely continue. Every person, who was involved in this case, will be judged; I mean judges of all three instances of the court, prosecutor and two fraud witnesses will be prosecuted. We will not stop because Mariam Ivelashvili was pardoned. The case was appealed at the Strasbourg Court and the Court has already accepted it. We conversed with our French Lawyer and asked him to hurry up the procedures. The case was appealed under Article 6 of the European Convention that is about passing verdict without unreal crime,” Khatiashvili told the Pirveli.

The President pardoned young lawyer Mariam Ivelashvili, 23, on St. George Holiday on November 23; she was convicted for fraud.

It is noteworthy that Mariam Ivelashvili did not plead guilty.

In accordance to the working principle of the Pardon Commission, it recommends early release only of those convicted who have served half of their terms, pleaded guilty, regreted their crime and had not committed grave crimes.

In this particular case, the mother of Mariam Ivelashvili had petitioned to the President for pardoning her daughter.

The representatives of the Bar Association said Ivelashvili’s attorney and chair of the Association Zaza Khatiashvili had informed European community about this fact.
 
The law enforcement officers detained Ivelashvili in Gori on November 3, 2008. The Tbilisi City Court sentenced her to 5, 5 year imprisonment.

The lawyers allege Ivelashvili was arbitrarily imprisoned.

“She was arbitrarily detained based on the testimonies of two fraud witnesses. They accuse her of accepting bribes of 100 and 309 GELs from them. The first of them alleged she had given 100 GEL to her to pay the state tax; and as for the second witness, the lawyer does not know him at all; however, the judge did not pay attention to this circumstance when passing verdict,” said Zaza Khatiashvili.

Ivelashvili connects her detention with the fabricated TV-story released by TV-Company Imedi in 2004. Studio Monitor created a film about this fact.

The young lawyer said in the documentary film of the Monitor said she, based on the request of the former Shida Kartli regional governor Mikheil Kareli and his advisor, currently MP Badri Basishvili, spread false information on TV-Company “Imedi”; she, being a school-pupil, introduced herself as an activist of Ossetian public movement “Kmara” (enough) which allegedly fought against Kokoity’s regime. Later, Ivelashvili confessed the truth and exposed the local authority. So, the lawyer claims that she was punished for her confession.

News Agency “Pirveli”

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