ECtHR Rules Against Georgia in “Cable Case”, Citing Fair Trial Violations

On February 11, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) ruled against Georgia in the so-called “cable case” (Glonti and others v. Georgia), finding violations of the European Convention on Human Rights regarding the right to a fair trial.

The case involved five former Defense Ministry and General Staff officials who were charged with misspending GEL 4.1 million in an alleged sham tender in 2013 on laying fiber-optic cable in 2014. They denied charges. The Tbilisi City Court sentenced them to seven years in prison for the alleged embezzlement of approximately GEL four million. In January 2017, their charges were later reclassified by the Tbilisi Court of Appeal as abuse of office. The new charges reduced their sentence from seven years to one year and six months, but they were not given the opportunity to defend themselves against the revised charges. In February 2017, they appealed to the Supreme Court, which refused to grant them leave to appeal. Finally, President Giorgi Margvelashvili pardoned them and they were released in 2017.

Despite their release, the applicants took their case to the European Court of Human Rights, arguing that their trial had been unfair due to the sudden and unknown to them reclassification of the charges, as well as the withholding of key prosecution evidence. The ECHR found that the applicants’ rights to be informed in detail of the nature and reasons of the charges against them and to have sufficient time and adequate conditions for the exercise of their rights of defense had been violated. The ECtHR ruled that Georgia had violated their right to a fair trial under Article 6 § 1 and 3 (a) and (b) of the European Convention on Human Rights, citing procedural unfairness in the reclassification of charges without an opportunity for a defense and the non-disclosure of key forensic evidence.

The applicants were represented before the ECtHR by the Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association (GYLA), which had already in 2015 deemed the case politically motivated and the defendants not guilty, citing a lack of evidence.

The controversial so-called “cable case” led to first major split within the Georgian Dream (GD) ruling coalition and the firing of Defense Minister Irakli Alasania, followed by resignations of his two allies from cabinet posts in 2016. Alasania has been denouncing charges against the MoD officials as “politically motivated”, which also aimed at targeting him as the defense minister. The rift resulted in Alasania’s Free Democrats leaving the GD coalition in November, 2014.

Also Read:

• 05/02/2024 – ECHR Received 156 Applications Against Georgia in 2023
• 16/05/2016 – GYLA: Guilty Verdict in Cable Case ‘Unfair, Unjustified, Unlawful’

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