Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association in cooperation with the Transparency International – Georgia will present results of monitoring of criminal trials in Tbilisi City Court held under the auspices of a USAID-funded project Judicial Independence and Legal Empowerment Project (JILEP) implemented by the East-West Management Institute (EWMI). The presentation held on June 14, 2012.

The project aims at increasing transparency in Georgian courts by means of monitoring trials in courtrooms and publishing consequent reports.

The monitoring implemented by GYLA covers the period from October 2011 to April 2012. The monitoring has revealed that

• During most of the main hearings the principle of adversity was observed; however, there were several instances where judge sharply digressed from his neutral role (questioning of witnesses);

• Judges’ decisions prescribing preventive measures during initial hearings were usually unsubstantiated;

• Judicial decisions illustrated that judges were biased in favor of office of the prosecutor – absolute majority of the prosecution’s motions were granted identically;

• All defendants were sentenced to preventive measures by court;

• Court applied two types of preventive measures only (bail/imprisonment) and it never resorted to light measures.

Information obtained through the monitoring is objective information based on facts and we remain hopeful that these findings will encourage positive changes in criminal justice reform in the future.