In Tbilisi, court refuses to recognize 16 protesters as victims

In Tbilisi, the court refused to grant the victim status to the activists who suffered during the dispersal of a rally in front of the parliament building. The authorities do not want the protesters to gain access to the case file, the Georgian Young Lawyers' Association (GYLA) states.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that law enforcers dispersed the protesters in Tbilisi at night on June 21. The Georgian Ministry for Public Health reported about the hospitalization of 240 people, and the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA)  about the detention of 305 protesters. The authorities avoid demonstrative punishment of the guilty persons, the NGO "Transparency International Georgia" claims.

The court has indicated that to grant the victim status to the aggrieved protestors, an investigation is to be conducted to reveal whether a crime had been committed and what damage had been inflicted. Rezo Archvadze, a lawyer from the GYLA, criticized the court's decision and said that it was not necessary to conduct an investigation to grant the victim status. The GYLA notes that the damage caused to the protesters, some of which lost their eyes, is obvious.

"The more they are postponing the trial, the more expensive it will cost the authorities in the legal sense," said Sulkhan Saladze, the chairperson of the GYLA, on the air of the "Mtavari Archi" TV Channel.