Proposal to the Secretary of High Council of Justice

www.ombudsman.ge

In accordance with article 21 (d) of the Organic Law of Georgia on the Public Defender of Georgia, Public Defender has addressed the Secretary of High Council of Justice with a proposal to initiate administrative measures against the Judge of Sighnaghi Regional Court, Shorena Kavlashvili and to take appropriate legal measures.  

  

The Office of Public Defender has examined application of Ivane P. convicted for a criminal offence. The examination revealed, that the Judge of Sighnaghi Regional Court, Shorena Kavlashvili may have violated the Law of Georgia on Disciplinary Responsibility and Disciplinary Prosecution of Judges of Common Courts, in other words she did not fulfill her legal responsibility. 

  

According to the files presented to Public Defender, the pre-trial hearing of the criminal case of Ivane P. was scheduled for 13:00 o’clock on January 16, 2013 and the case files against him that consisted of three volumes were transferred from Sighnaghi Regional Prosecutor’s Office to the court only at 16:00 o’clock on January 11. 

  

It is noteworthy that according to the Criminal Procedure Code of Georgia “five days prior to the pre-trial hearing the parties shall provide each other and the court with all the information available at their hand at that moment regarding the evidence to be submitted to the court.” Also, “the terms established by this Code shall be calculated in hours, days-nights, and months. In calculating terms, the day or the hour at which the running of a term starts shall not be taken into consideration, except for in cases of detention and arrest, which shall be calculated in minutes.”, “the term calculated in days and nights shall expire on the 24th hour of the last day.” 

  

Based on all of the mentioned above, the five day term prescribed by the Criminal Procedure Code of Georgia implies full five days. Therefore, the parties should have provided each other and the court with all the information available at their hand at that moment regarding the evidence to be submitted to the court 5 day prior to the pre-trial hearing scheduled on January 2013, in other words before 24:00 o’clock on January 10, 2013. 

  

Ivane P.’s defence attorney filled a motion for declaring all the evidence as inadmissible, as term for providing the evidence had been violated. 

  

The Judge of Sighnaghi Regional Court, Shorena Kavlashvili considered the motion filled by the accused Ivane P. and his defense attorney regarding declaration of all of the evidence as inadmissible and clarified that “the motion of the defense should not be met as the prosecution had provided the defense with probable evidence and a list of evidence to be submitted to the court no later than 5 days prior to the pre-trial hearing.” Based on the mentioned above, the court regarded the motion of the defense groundless and did not satisfy it. 

  

As you know, the Georgian legislation prescribes the given terms primarily to ensure effective defence of the accused and at the same time to guarantee court proceeding compliant to the principle of adversary procedure. Upholding the five day term is an imperative requirement and fulfilling this condition is mandatory. Therefore, breech of this term by the prosecution constituted a violation of law. Consequently, when considering the admissibility of evidence for the pre-trial hearing the court was obliged to consider the motion of the defence and clearly state the reason for not satisfying it.