Tbilisi Appellate Court to start examination of the lawsuits over the “death zones” of the Tbilisi Sea

On January 30, at 16:00 pm, the Tbilisi Appellate Court examined the applications of the HRC executive director and the Tbilisi City Hall.

 

The Tbilisi City Hall appealed the judgment of the Tbilisi City Court in the Appellate Court, based on which the court had ordered the City Hall to install warning banners and barriers in one of the most dangerous sites on the Tbilisi Sea, where several juveniles drowned in the past few years.

 

The territory of the so-called waterfall is particularly dangerous place for swimming but citizens are not informed about it and there are no barriers there. Aleko Tskitishvili’s 15-years-old son Tsotne Tskitishvili drowned there in 2017. A year before, Maka Tsiklauri’s 14-years-old son Nodar Shamatava drowned there too. The two families lodged administrative lawsuit to the Tbilisi City Court against the water distribution company Georgian Water and Power (GWP) together with the Tbilisi City Hall. After almost two-year court dispute, Judge Natia Buskadze ordered the Tbilisi City Hall to install warning banners nearby the so-called waterfall on the Tbilisi Sea as well as the construction of the 2, 5 meters high concrete wall alongside the channel to prevent people from climbing over it.

 

The Tbilisi City Hall refused to enforce the court judgment and believes that they are not responsible to prevent tragic accidents in the capital. 

In response to the appellate lawsuit of the Tbilisi City Hall, Human Rights Center will counter-appeal the Tbilisi Appellate Court and will request to annul the part of the previous judgment, where the applicants were refused to get reimbursement for moral damage. 

 

Watch journalistic investigation of the Freedom Monitor about the Death Zones in Georgia