Delay in Verdict over Ugulava’s Constitutional Complaint as Judge Refuses to Sign It

One of the nine members of the Constitutional Court is refusing to sign a verdict into a complaint lodged by ex-mayor of Tbilisi Gigi Ugulava over 9-month pre-trial detention limit, making it impossible for the court to announce its decision, which was originally planned for September 15.
 
Although the verdict is actually delivered, it cannot be issued either to the parties of the case or to the public unless all nine members of the court sign it.

Merab Turava, who became a member of the Constitutional Court in March, 2015 after being nominated by lawmakers from the Georgian Dream ruling coalition, says that he has not yet signed the verdict because he had no “reasonable time” for studying the decision.

Ugulava’s lawyers and politicians from the opposition UNM party have accused Turava of trying to buy time for the prosecution, which is pursuing multiple criminal charges against ex-mayor in several separate cases.

Trials over these charges against Ugulava, which he denies as politically motivated, are still ongoing; meantime he remains in pre-trial detention for more than 14 months already.

In April Ugulava, who is one of the leaders of opposition UNM party, appealed the Constitutional Court seeking repealing of legislative clauses, which he argues contradict constitutionally set 9-month limitation of pre-trial detention.

Constitution says that the term of pre-trial detention of an accused person should not exceed 9 months.

But criminal procedures code allows detention beyond 9-month limitation if new charges are filed against the same person.

When the original 9-month pre-trial detention for Ugulava was nearing its end, prosecutors re-qualified in March, 2015 one of the criminal charges against him in order to remand him in custody pending court’s verdict.

Similar tactic was used by the prosecution against ex-defense minister and former prison chief Bacho Akhalaia, who was arrested in November 2012 and whose pre-trial detention was extended for several times by gradually adding new charges against him before he was convicted in October, 2014.

The Constitutional Court said at noon on September 15 that it was going to announce its verdict into Ugulava’s complaint at 5pm local time.

But in the evening the court said in a statement that it had to delay issuing of the verdict as one of its members – Merab Turava – failed to show up at a session to sign the decision, citing health problems.

Turava arrived in one of the hospitals in Black Sea city of Batumi, where the Constitutional Court is based, on September 15.

On September 16 he said that although he had blood pressure problems, health issue was not the main reason of his refusal to sign the Constitutional Court’s decision on Ugulava’s complaint.

“I have not signed [the verdict] not because of my health… but because I am asking for reasonable time for studying the 50-page decision and laying out in a written form my objections if I have any,” Turava told journalists in the hospital in Batumi.
 
Turava says that the verdict was submitted to him for signing at short notice only an hour before the Constitutional Court said it was going to announce the decision on September 15. He said it was “disrespectful”.

The Constitutional Court has denied one of its members’ allegation and said that all nine judges were given “reasonable time” to study the verdict.
 
Members of the Constitutional Court, including its chairman Giorgi Papuashvili, met Turava in the hospital on September 16 to seek his signature on the verdict.

After that meeting the Constitutional Court released a written statement saying that Turava was refusing to sign the decision.

The court said that a judge has no right not to sign the final verdict regardless of his or her opinion over the case.

It also said that it would refer Turava’s decision not to sign the verdict to the Constitutional Court’s ethics commission.

Ugulava’s lawyer, Beka Basilaia, said on September 16 that Turava was deliberately dragging out putting his signature in order to delay issuing of the Constitutional Court’s decision.

He claimed that the prosecutor’s office, hoping for a guilty verdict in at least one of the cases against Ugulava in Tbilisi court, wants to delay issuing of Constitutional Court’s decision in order to keep ex-mayor in detention. If Ugulava is found guilty and convicted in one of the criminal cases against him, Basilaia said, winning of the constitutional court case will no longer be relevant for Ugulava as it won’t help to release him from pre-trial detention. 

Speaking at a parliament session on September 16, UNM MP Giorgi Gabashvili accused Turava of acting upon “direct orders” of ex-PM Bidzina Ivanishvili, who, he said, wants to keep Ugulava in “illegal detention at any cost.”

Parliament speaker, Davit Usupashvili, commented on the issue earlier on September 16 before Turava’s remarks and the Constitutional Court’s response. Usupashvili said that this situation was not contributing to the confidence towards the Constitutional Court.

“Yesterday I had a conversation with chairman of the Constitutional Court and I asked him to clarify the issue as soon as possible. Of course we have not discussed anything related to the content of the verdict. The fact that this situation caused speculation – one the one hand over possible hast as the announcement was made [by the Constitutional Court] to issue the verdict, which technically was not fully finalized, and on the other hand over possible attempt to drag out the verdict as it was not possible to put a signature of one of the judges because of incomprehensible or implausible reasons,” Usupashvili said at a parliamentary bureau session on September 16.

“Neither of these versions – whether separately or in combination, contribute to establishment of a constitutional rule in the country and to authoritativeness and trust towards the court,” Usupashvili added.

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