Opposition Urges Gov't to Release Ex-PM Merabishvil

Parliamentary minority European Georgia is calling on the Government of Georgia to release ex-Prime Minister Ivane Merabishvili from detention, as he faces health problems and has been transferred to the hospital.

Otar Kakhidze, a member of the European Georgia party, says the European Court has already established a violation of Article 18 of the European Convention in relation to Merabishvili, which directly means that that ex-official should be released from imprisonment.

“The European Court of Human Rights found a violation of Article 18 of the European Convention. This violation means that Merabishvili was in custody for illegitimate purposes. This is the gravest and rarest violation of the Convention, the so-called article on political prisoners,” he stated.

According to Kakhidze, It is important that the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe put this case on the December agenda.

“I call on the Government of Georgia not to wait for the December session of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe in order to release Merabishvili and to bring all the persons involved in the violation of his rights to justice,” he stressed.

Ivane Merabishvili served as PM and Interior Minister of Georgia under the previous United National Movement (UNM) government, when Mikheil Saakashvili was President. He was arrested in May 2013 after the current ruling Georgian Dream (GD) coalition won the 2012 parliamentary elections. 

In February 2014, a Georgian court found Merabishvili guilty on the charge of exceeding his official power, and he was subsequently sentenced to four years and six months in prison. 

Merabishvili claimed he was innocent, adding his pre-trial detention was politically motivated as he was appointed Secretary General of the UNM after the 2012 parliamentary elections, and intended to participate in the 2013 presidential elections also. 

The defendant filed a lawsuit with the ECHR, which in June 2016 ruled out that Merabishvili’s pre-trial detention was lawful, and based on reasonable grounds decided that Georgia was to pay Merabishvili €4,000 in respect of non-pecuniary damage and €8,000 for costs and expenses. 

The decision of compensation was later appealed by the Georgian side, but the Grand Chamber upheld the decision of the ECHR, made in June last year.  The ECHR said that Merabishvili’s pre-trial detention had not principally been meant to remove him from Georgia’s political scene. However, the Court concluded that the predominant purpose of that restriction had changed over time.

By Thea Morrison