Successful cases of HRC (November-February, 2020-2021)

Tbilisi Court of Appeals acquitted 12 former political prisoners convicted in so called Kintsvisi case 

On 9 February 2021, Tbilisi Appeal Court granted the claim by Human Rights Center (HRC) and rendered a judgment of acquittal in favor of the 12 former political prisoners convicted in 2011 in the so called case of Kintsvisi.

Due to the gross and obvious violations in the case, further due to the facts of torture and inhuman treatment, the obvious political motives in the investigation, HRC was the initiator that the participants in the so called Kintsvisi case to be granted the status of political prisoners, and in 2013 the Parliament of Georgia adopted the respective resolution. 

In the following years, the offenses  committed during the legal proceedings in the above case against the persons convicted became even more apparent. In this regard, the judgment by the European Court of Human Rights in the case Nikoloz Goguadze v. Georgia is especially noteworthy.

All the same, the Prosecutor's Office of Georgia (also the Department of the Offenses Committed during Legal Proceedings) defended up to the date the official position of the investigation before 2012 conducted with substantial violations, testimonies obtained through torture and inhuman treatment of detainees.

In 2018, HRC applied to the Court of Appeals with a petition to review the judgment rendered against 12 persons in the so called Kintsvisi case and to render a judgment of acquittal.

The above judgment of the Court of Appeals is the result of many years work of HRC, thus taking an important step towards the legal rehabilitation of 12 persons involved in the Kintsvisi case.

The court granted the claim of M.B. a refugee from Georgia persecuted on ethnic grounds against M.M. to surrender an apartment to M.B.

Under the ruling of November 13, 2020, Tbilisi Court of Appeals rejected an appeal of M.M. and upheld the judgment by the magistrate judge of Kareli from December 13, 2019 granting the claim of M.B. against M.M. to surrender him in empty condition a dwelling apartment.

On November 29, 2018, a citizen of Russia M. B. applied to Shida Kartli Office of HRC stating that his father was entitled under certificate N 32 to a three-room apartment located in Kareli. As the result of the conflict of 1991-1992, the family of five was forced to leave their residence and move to North Ossetia for living. After the death of his parents, M.B. returned to Georgia in 2018 and discovered that M.M. was living with his family in the apartment owned by the family of M.B.  A lawyer from HRC provided M.B. legal aid and drafted for him a lawsuit to recover the real property from the illegal possession.

On February 8, 2021, by the judgment of Tbilisi Court of Appeals, the judgment of the Court of First Instance from November 13, 2020 was upheld granting in full the claim of M.B. 

 

Former police officer was sentenced to maximum punishment for a car accident  

 

On February 19, Tbilisi City Court sentenced former police detective A. I. to maximum sanction of 7 years of imprisonment for a car accident having resulted in a manslaughter.  

 

On July 8, 2018, on Dadiani Avenue in Tbilisi, Detective A. I. of Tbilisi Police Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) crashed with his own car into K.M. and E. M. and fled the scene.  As a result of the car accident, 20-year-old K.M. died after being taken to hospital. Only after two days A. I. appeared in the police station.

In the current criminal case, for two years no charges were brought against A. I. and he was carrying on his work in the position of a detective within Tbilisi Police Department of MIA.  Despite the appeal of HRC acting as an advocate organisation to the victim’s family, the competent authorities did not respond to the fact that A.I. disappeared from the scene and did not fulfill his civic and official duties.

On June 19, 2020, Tbilisi City Court remanded A.I. the detective of Tbilisi Police Department of MIA in custody as a measure of restraint.   

A participant in the August war was released from prison after 10 years

On February 18, 2021, Tbilisi City Court granted the motion of Dimitri Nozadze, a lawyer within HRC, as a result of which Akaki Tokhadze, a convict with disabilities, was released from prison.

In 2012, a court sentenced him with 6 years of imprisonment for intentionally inflicting a damage to the property of another person.  In 2011, the accused was placed in penitentiary facility N8 being completely healthy. According to him, as a result of inhuman treatment in the prison, he became a person with disabilities of the first category.  According to the opinion of experts, his condition was not curable. In 2013, the punishment of the convict was deferred and he was released from the prison. 

In 2018, due to the lack of funds, he failed to submit an expert report resulting in his arrest again in January 2019. Based on the report of the expert examination conducted in penitentiary facility N18 on June 21, 2019, the sentence of Tokhadze was again deferred by one year. 

On January 8, 2021, Dimitri Nozadze applied to the Tbilisi City Court with a petition to release Akaki Tokhadze, a person with disabilities, from the punishment because of his health condition. On February 18, 2021, the petition was granted. 

An Iranian citizen has received a temporary residence permit in Georgia

On December 19, 2020, Tbilisi City Court granted in full the statement of claim by HRC. The refusal of the Agency of State Services Development was declared null and void and the Agency was assigned to issue a temporary residence permit to M.K.

In September 2020, a citizen of Iran approached HRC asking a support in appealing the standard denial of a temporary residence permit by the State Services Development Agency. On September 29, a lawsuit was drafted and handed over to M.K.  On December 19, the court granted the Iranian citizen the right to obtain a temporary residence permit. 

Human Rights Center