Parliament to Hear Ombudsman’s Report

The Public Defender’s Office said it had been contacted by Parliament and notified that lawmakers would listen to Public Defender Sozar Subari’s 2007 report on human rights in the country at a session on July 15.

The previous parliament refused to listen to the report; Nino Burjanadze, who was the parliamentary chairperson at the time, said in March that there was not enough time to listen to Subari’s two comprehensive bi-annual reports (744 and 633 pages respectively) covering the country’s human rights record in 2007.

MP Petre Tsiskarishvili, the parliamentary majority leader, set the tone of the planned hearing of the report on July 14 by criticizing the public defender as being “politically biased in favor of the opposition.” “We will defend our position,” he added.

Subari has often been the target of criticism by senior figures from the ruling party, who describe his outspoken reports as “politically-motivated.”

Following Parliament’s refusal to listen to his 2007 report on human rights, Subari presented the report at a conference in Tbilisi on March 28.

The report covering the second half of 2007 is especially critical of the state’s response to November’s demonstrations, demanding Interior Minister Vano Merabishvili take responsibility for excessive use of force by the police.

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