Ministry of Justice responds to the Public Defender
By Tatia Megeneishvili
Friday, May 23
The Ministry of Justice responded to the findings of the Report on the Analytical Study of the Fulfillment of the Recommendations Issued by the Public Defender of Georgia, which was presented on May 20.
According to the report, the Ministry of Justice has not fulfilled any of the Public Defender’s recommendations. The Ministry stated that three out of four recommendations have been forwarded to the Prosecutor’s office of Georgia, because the fulfillment of those recommendations was not within the Ministry’s authority.
According to the Ministry, recommendations about the search of the house of the former governor of Samegrelo, Tengiz Gunava, the criminal pursuit of the Chief of Joint Staff of the Georgian Armed Forces, Giorgi Kalandadze, and the legacy of questioning witnesses connected with the criminal case against the former Defense Minister, Bacho Akhalaia, are all outside their authority.
“All those recommendations are out of range of our authority that is why they cannot be counted as unfulfilled recommendations,” the statement reads.
Another recommendation of the Public Defender of Georgia to the Minister of Justice is about the Public Registry. “According to the Ombudsman's recommendation, it should become possible to ask for documents kept in the registry and send them to expertise institutions,” the statements reads.
However, the Ministry named the relevant code of Georgia, which explains this procedure.
Also the statement reads that the Legislative Herald of Georgia (LEPL), which belongs to the Ministry of Justice of Georgia, was among the institutions which has fulfilled 100% of recommendations, however it was discussed separately from the Public Registry.
The Ministry has also stated that they respect the recommendations by the public defender and they are ready to cooperate with them in future as well.