GYLA: Guilty Verdict in Cable Case ‘Unfair, Unjustified, Unlawful’

Tbilisi-based legal advocacy group, Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association (GYLA), which was representing one of the co-defendants in the cable case trial against five former MoD and general staff officials, said the guilty verdict delivered by the court on May 16 was “unfair, unjustified and unlawful”, further fueling suspicions over “political motives” behind the conviction.

Tbilisi City Court found five defendants guilty of misspending and sentenced them to seven years in prison on May 16.

One former and four serving officials from MoD and general staff of the armed forces were arrested on October 28, 2014 and charged with misspending GEL 4.1 million in an alleged sham tender in 2013 on laying fiber-optic cable. The five men have denied charges.
 
GYLA said that evidence available in the case fail to prove defendants’ “mercenary motives”, which is an element of offense envisaged by article 182 of the Georgian criminal code, involving misspending, under which the defendants were charged.
 
It also said that the defendants have never had an access to funds, which the prosecution claimed were misspent.

“The prosecution has failed to prove that MoD officials had intent of misspending budgetary funds for anyone’s personal gain,” GYLA said and also pointed that the judge delivered the verdict only two working days after the 18-month trial was over.

It expressed hope that during the appellate process, the higher court will have “enough courage, will take only legal factors into consideration and will deliver the only right decision – that is acquittal of innocent people.”

This so called “cable case” led to first major split within the Georgian Dream (GD) ruling coalition in 2014 and the firing of then Defense Minister Irakli Alasania, followed by resignations of his two allies from cabinet posts.

It resulted in Alasania’s Free Democrats leaving the GD coalition in November, 2014. Alasania has been denouncing charges against the MoD officials as “politically motivated”.

Free Democrats opposition party, which has condemned the verdict as politically motivated, said on Monday that it will hold a protest rally outside the Prosecutor’s Office on May 21.

Leader of the party, Irakli Alasania, said that he will “fight to the end” through all the available legal means, including appellate as well as street protest rallies, to achieve release of the five “innocent” men.

“By this verdict [ex-PM] Bidzina Ivanishvili ‘congratulated’ us, Free Democrats, on the launch of election campaign,” Irakli Alasania said on May 16. “This [verdict] was a political order coming from [Ivanishvili], demonstrating growing trend towards authoritarian regime in the country.”

“When soldiers and their families are treated like this by the judiciary and prosecutor’s office, controlled by [Ivanishvili], it means that we all should make a proper conclusion – consequences will be grave if we leave Georgia in this injustice,” Alasania said.

“We will not turn away from the path of elections and in the October parliamentary elections, together with the Georgian people, we will replace authorities obedient to the informal ruler [Ivanishvili],” he added.

Republican Party, which remains in governing coalition with the GDDG party, also said that there are political motives behind the guilty verdict.

“We saw and still see political motives in this case and today’s verdict proves that there are political motives,” Khatuna Samnidze, chairperson of the Republican Party, told Tbilisi-based TV Pirveli on May 16.

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