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GEORGIA'S MIDNIGHT EXPRESS
By Paul Rimple
The Moscow Times
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/opinion/article/georgias-midnight-express/450951.html
Jan 11 2012
Russia
Crossing the Georgian border from Armenia or Azerbaijan, the first
thing you notice, besides the new customs buildings, is a sense of
legitimacy. You do not have to jump through hoops to get a visa, nor
will you be slapped with arbitrary crossing fees. You will not see cops
slouching at the side of the road with whistles in their mouths and
batons in their hands. Georgian cops drive new patrol cars and write
tickets for only actual infractions, just like police in the West.
Behind the Western veneer, however, is a judiciary that resembles
Georgia's neighbors. You do not want to be accused of even breaking
a little law in Georgia, particularly if you are a political activist.
Human Rights Watch released a report on Jan. 4 that reveals how
Georgia's Soviet-era Code of Administrative Offenses still fails
to meet the country's human rights obligations, even after being
redrafted last year.
Administrative offenses are misdemeanors that used to carry a maximum
punishment of 30 days, but after large-scale opposition protests
in 2009 the law was fortuitously amended to 90 days. According to
international law, such punishment constitutes a criminal penalty,
or felony, and therefore you should have the same due process rights
as a felony defendant. But Georgia's administrative code has loopholes
that allow police to throw you in a holding cell without telling you
what you were arrested for.
You have the right to legal counsel at the hearing, but the code does
not state whether you have that right from the moment of your arrest.
The police are not necessarily obliged to inform you of your rights,
and they may not let you make a phone call. It's up to your family
to find out that you have been detained and to hire a lawyer, who
must then try to find where you are being held.
Administrative trials are swift 15-minute affairs, where the court
extensively relies on police testimonies. Because the accused is
assumed in advance to be a troublemaker, the judge will not notice the
wounds he has sustained during the detention process. Furthermore,
a defendant's lawyer will not have had time to prepare a defense,
especially if he was appointed by the court. Of course, the judge may
decide the accused doesn't need a lawyer at all, even if he is a minor.
Giorgi Lapiashvili, 17, was arrested in May after calling Georgian
President Mikheil Saakashvili a "murderer" at a theater the president
was present at. Police refused Lapiashvili's request to call his family
or a lawyer. During the trial, the judge also denied the boy's request
to have his parents and lawyer present and appointed the arresting
officer to represent him instead. Lapiashvili was fined 400 lari
($240).
In Georgia, felons serve time in prison while misdemeanor offenders
serve their sentences in temporary detention facilities, which were
designed to hold people for 72 hours and are often in conditions akin
to Midnight Express.
Armenia and Azerbaijan make no pretenses about egalitarian reform,
so we are not surprised when opposition activists, journalists or even
satirists are imprisoned on bogus charges. But Georgia is different.
It prides itself on being the region's leader of reform, and if you
look in the right places you can see evidence of this. But the day
Georgia truly distinguishes itself from its neighbors is when Lady
Justice will finally be blindfolded and holding a set of scales
instead of the current hammer and sickle.
Paul Rimple is a journalist in Tbilisi.
By Paul Rimple
The Moscow Times
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/opinion/article/georgias-midnight-express/450951.html
Jan 11 2012
Russia
Crossing the Georgian border from Armenia or Azerbaijan, the first
thing you notice, besides the new customs buildings, is a sense of
legitimacy. You do not have to jump through hoops to get a visa, nor
will you be slapped with arbitrary crossing fees. You will not see cops
slouching at the side of the road with whistles in their mouths and
batons in their hands. Georgian cops drive new patrol cars and write
tickets for only actual infractions, just like police in the West.
Behind the Western veneer, however, is a judiciary that resembles
Georgia's neighbors. You do not want to be accused of even breaking
a little law in Georgia, particularly if you are a political activist.
Human Rights Watch released a report on Jan. 4 that reveals how
Georgia's Soviet-era Code of Administrative Offenses still fails
to meet the country's human rights obligations, even after being
redrafted last year.
Administrative offenses are misdemeanors that used to carry a maximum
punishment of 30 days, but after large-scale opposition protests
in 2009 the law was fortuitously amended to 90 days. According to
international law, such punishment constitutes a criminal penalty,
or felony, and therefore you should have the same due process rights
as a felony defendant. But Georgia's administrative code has loopholes
that allow police to throw you in a holding cell without telling you
what you were arrested for.
You have the right to legal counsel at the hearing, but the code does
not state whether you have that right from the moment of your arrest.
The police are not necessarily obliged to inform you of your rights,
and they may not let you make a phone call. It's up to your family
to find out that you have been detained and to hire a lawyer, who
must then try to find where you are being held.
Administrative trials are swift 15-minute affairs, where the court
extensively relies on police testimonies. Because the accused is
assumed in advance to be a troublemaker, the judge will not notice the
wounds he has sustained during the detention process. Furthermore,
a defendant's lawyer will not have had time to prepare a defense,
especially if he was appointed by the court. Of course, the judge may
decide the accused doesn't need a lawyer at all, even if he is a minor.
Giorgi Lapiashvili, 17, was arrested in May after calling Georgian
President Mikheil Saakashvili a "murderer" at a theater the president
was present at. Police refused Lapiashvili's request to call his family
or a lawyer. During the trial, the judge also denied the boy's request
to have his parents and lawyer present and appointed the arresting
officer to represent him instead. Lapiashvili was fined 400 lari
($240).
In Georgia, felons serve time in prison while misdemeanor offenders
serve their sentences in temporary detention facilities, which were
designed to hold people for 72 hours and are often in conditions akin
to Midnight Express.
Armenia and Azerbaijan make no pretenses about egalitarian reform,
so we are not surprised when opposition activists, journalists or even
satirists are imprisoned on bogus charges. But Georgia is different.
It prides itself on being the region's leader of reform, and if you
look in the right places you can see evidence of this. But the day
Georgia truly distinguishes itself from its neighbors is when Lady
Justice will finally be blindfolded and holding a set of scales
instead of the current hammer and sickle.
Paul Rimple is a journalist in Tbilisi.