The Public Defender of Georgia is closely watching the judicial dispute over the Rustavi 2 TV company. Representatives of the Public Defender have attended all hearings in the Court of Appeal of Tbilisi. The Public Defender's Office continues detailed survey of several issues in order to find out whether there had been violations of the rights and freedoms guaranteed by the Georgian legislation during the judicial proceedings.

This time we would like to respond to the report released yesterday, according to which, on 22 June 2016, the Court of Appeal sent the decision related to the Rustavi 2 case to the parties, while today an official explanation has been made..

The first part of Article 259¹ of the Civil Procedure Code of Georgia clearly stipulates:

"If the announcement of a decision is attended by a person authorized to appeal, or if such a person was aware of the date of the announcement of a decision under the Georgian legislation, the party that wishes to appeal against the decision (or its representative) shall appear in the court no earlier than 20 days and no later than 30 days from the announcement of a resolution part of a decision and shall receive a copy of the decision; Otherwise the appeal period will begin on the 30^th day from the announcement of the decision. Extension or restoration of the term is inadmissible."

In the present case, the decision was announced on June 10. Accordingly, the party (or its representative) is obliged to appear before the court no earlier than June 30 and no later than July 10 and receive a copy of the decision. And, if the party does not show up within that term, the 21-day term for appealing against the Court of Appeal decision will start on the 30^th day (on 10 July).

The current rules for reception of civil case decisions took effect in Tbilisi and Kutaisi Courts of Appeal on December 15, 2010, and in all courts - on April 1, 2012. According to the explanatory note to the bill, the changes are aimed at rapid and economical administration of justice. Economical justice in this case means that court does not allocate any finances for delivery of civil case decisions, except for two exceptional cases, when decisions are to be sent to the persons exempted from court fees or to the prisoners who do not have representatives. In these exceptional cases, the court sends decisions under Articles 70-78 of the Civil Procedure Code. Extension of the scope of exceptional cases by court is not envisaged by the law. Accordingly, the above action of the Court of Appeal, namely sending of the court decision to the party on the 12^th day from the announcement, does not comply with the law. Besides, the Public Defender is not aware of any case when any court interpreted and applied law as it was done in this case. Court shall not create a sense of selective justice by its actions and decisions; shall not act beyond the law or use it selectively and unjustifiably.

According to Rustavi 2 Director General Nika Gvaramia, the fact that the Court of Appeal decision is regarded as delivered at the early stage damages their interest related to the adoption of a decision by the Constitutional Court with regard to their constitutional claim before the final settlement of the civil dispute.

It should be noted that court shall prepare a decision in the period specified by law (no earlier than 20 days and no later than 30 days from the announcement of a resolution part of a decision), while the party makes a decision about its defense strategy on its own - whether to appear in court to receive a court's decision at the very first opportunity or not, whether to file a cassation appeal on the very first day or not. Court interference with this choice of the party or replacement of the party’s will by the court’s will is inadmissible.

The Public Defender hopes that the Supreme Court will be guided by law during review of the cassation suit and will duly assess the abovementioned action of the Court of Appeal of Tbilisi.