Lawyers hold protest in Tbilisi

The Bar Association held a rally in front of the Supreme Court of Georgia in protest against detention of lawyer Tariel Murmanashvili, accused of a fraud.

The "Caucasian Knot" correspondent has learnt from Zaza Khatiashvili, Chairman of the Bar Association of Georgia, the main aim of the action was to voice protest against mass persecution of lawyers in Georgia.

"Since Mikhail Saakashvili's advent to power, 122 lawyers were convicted in Georgia. This is unprecedented by its scale pressure on the bar - during the whole Soviet Union time, 80 lawyers were convicted in the Georgian SSR (Soviet Socialist Republic). Saakashvili has managed within his seven years to surpass Stalin, Khrushchev and Brezhnev altogether," said Zaza Khatiashvili.

Tariel Murmanashvili was arrested on September 9, 2011, under a lawsuit lodged by a Belgian businessman. Thanks to the legal services rendered by Murmanashvili, the businessman adjudged 1.5 million laris (900,000 US dollars). However, the former client filed a complaint against Murmanashvili, accusing him of forging the written contract on attorney's services.

According to Zaza Khatiashvili, in fact, Tariel Murmanashvili is persecuted not by the Belgian businessman, but the bosses of the Ministry of Justice and the Chief Prosecutor's Office.

In his turn, Tamar Chugoshvili, President of the Association of Young Lawyers of Georgia, asserts that the lawyers of his associations are not subject to any pressure by the authorities.

"Recently, there were several cases, when defendants who had asked for legal help, refused from defence before the start of trials. It's more pressure not on lawyers but on the people whom we defend," the website "Echo of the Caucasus" quotes Chugoshvili as saying.

The lawyers of the Association do not take money from their customers: they work on the projects, which are funded by international organizations-grantors. However, other lawyers have their main incomes as royalties charged from clients.

According to the lawyer Shalva Khachapuridze, clients of regular lawyers also get under pressure.

"Our clients are pressed by prosecutors. It's not always intimidation or violence: a client is just advised to refuse from our services, because, allegedly, we can't win a knowingly lost, as investigators assert, cases. Instead, the frightened client is offered the services of the so-called 'state defenders'. These are the lawyers accredited at the Correction Ministry. They take no money from clients - the state pays for their services," said Shalva Khachapuridze.

According to his story, these lawyers simply force client to conclude procedural agreements with the investigation. "The man takes the blame and pays the money; then, one of two things - he or she is either released or receives a smaller term than initially assumes," said the lawyer.

According to Zaza Khatiashvili, the situation, when clients are fenced off from advocates, while the latter are imprisoned for no reason, is a result of the political monopoly of one party in Georgia and because - by definition of the lawyer - "Saakashvili's regime has taken control over all the judges."

"Now a judge is a sort of a notary, who is just documenting the indictment compiled by the prosecutor. The only way out of this situation is to dismiss all the current judges, who are no longer able to work independently. The ruling elite should exhibit the will to create the institution of independent judges," said Zaza Khatiashvili.

Besides, in his opinion, the Code of Criminal Procedure needs amendments.

"When last year they changed the Code, I made a statement on television that we received an instrument of pressure on lawyers. In fact, a lawyer has unequal rights with respect to the investigator," Zaza Khatiashvili told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

On the day of the protest action, members of the Bar Association sent a letter to Jose Manuel Barroso, Chairman of the European Commission with a demand to declare President Saakashvili persona non grata in the EU. Besides, lawyers intend to continue their protest actions outside the UN and EU representative offices in Georgia and to go on a hunger strike with a demand to pay attention to the fate of their colleagues, who remain in detention.