Georgia: Judge unlawfully removes Tbilisi mayor from office, says EPP Vice President
Brussels, 23 December 2014
The Vice President of the European People’s Party (EPP), Jacek Saryusz-Wolski, made the following statement after hearing the news that the Mayor of Tbilisi was illegally stripped of his mandate:
“On Sunday 22 December, at 1 am, the city court judge Dali Metreveli without warning, with no oral hearing, with no lawyers present and, more importantly, with no sound legal basis, decided to remove the Mayor of Tbilisi, Gigi Ugulava, from office. Directly elected in 2010, in an election recognized as free and fair by international observers, Gigi Ugulava, who is preparing to run for re-election in 2014, is the last opposition leader to hold a key elected post in the country. On behalf of the EPP, I strongly condemn this new attack against local democratic governance in Georgia and I call for the immediate reversal of this decision. In democracies, only voters can change elected majorities.
Even before this outrageous decision, Mayor Ugulava has alleged that unlawful pressure was being applied on the courts by government officials and that he would be willing to testify and disclose information that will prove the application of such pressure. I, therefore, call on the Georgian authorities to promptly investigate these claims.
Needless to say, such acts of selective justice - also, as in the case of former PM Vano Merabishvili - will hamper Georgia's chances to sign the Association Agreement with EU, as it has happened with Ukraine.”
Note to editors: The EPP is the largest and most influential European-level political party of the centre-right, which currently includes 74 member-parties from 39 countries, the Presidents of the European Commission and the European Council, 12 EU and 4 non-EU heads of state and government, 13 members of the European Commission and the largest Group in the European Parliament.
For more information: Kostas Sasmatzoglou, EPP Spokesman, Tel. +32-2-2854147
Javier Jiménez, EPP Senior Press and Communication Officer, Tel. +32-475480446
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