Page 11 - GEORptMay20

The sentence handed down to Okruashvili, leader of the Victorious Georgia party, can be appealed. European Union and US representatives expressed concern as to the independence of the judiciary in Georgia.
Okruashvili was charged with “organising, directing and engaging in” a mass violence incident, although the court cleared him of the charge of “directing” the wrongdoing.
The court said that the list of offences included “violence, ravaging, property damage, and resisting and assaulting [law enforcement] officials by means of firearms.”
Opposition politicians disagreed with the court decision. Grigol Vashadze of the United National Movement (UNM) said that the ruling Georgian Dream party had seized upon the situation caused by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic to gain cover and was now trying to violate the agreement between the ruling party and the opposition.
“The pandemic will be over and all political prisoners should be released,” noted Vashadze.
European Union Ambassador to Georgia Carl Hartzell said that the circumstances around Okruashvili’s case “are not conducive to building trust around the historic political agreement reached between all major political parties on March 8 [on electoral law] and raises questions about the even-handedness of the follow-up to the events of June 20, 2019”.
The US embassy in Tbilisi said in an April 14 statement that the court’s ruling amounted to "political interference" and "the selective use of justice".
The US and EU had called on the Georgian government, political parties and civil society to engage in a "calm and respectful dialogue" following the protests, suppressed forcefully by the police with the use of rubber bullets and water cannon.
2.7​ ​Georgia’s ruling party backing constitutional changes to introduce new voting system
Following the March 8 agreement on changing the electoral system ahead of the 2020 general election, the ruling Georgian Dream party has brought forward a bill envisaging an amended constitution, Civil.ge announced.
The bill unveiled on March 11 needs the endorsement of two-thirds of lawmakers to pass. The last time that Georgian Dream promoted a bill for amending the electoral system, earlier this year, it included more radical provisions and it proved impossible to obtain the support of all of the party’s MPs. The initiative failed, triggering massive protests from the opposition. The new bill states that the parliamentary poll would be held based on “the 120/30 system”, under which 120 MPs would be elected through proportional representation party lists and 30 from single-mandate constituencies (also known as majoritarian voting system). Full proportional voting would be introduced from 2024 under the amended constitution endorsed last year.
11​ GEORGIA Country Report ​May 2020 ​​www.intellinews.com