GYLA Continues to Protect the Rights of 20 Individuals Affected by the July 5-6 Violence

Georgian Young Lawyers Association (GYLA) continues to represent the rights of those affected by the violent events of July 5-6, 2021. At this stage, GYLA is involved in the case of 20 individuals. Of these, 18 are representatives of various media organizations who were subjected to violence and interference with their journalistic activities, and 2 were physically assaulted by violent groups because of their association with the LGBT + group due to their accompanying persons and various accessories.

Based on the investigative and procedural actions, 15 of the individuals whose interests GYLA is protecting are known to be victims. It is noteworthy that the investigative body has not yet identified all the persons involved in the violent acts, nor has any criminal prosecution been initiated against the organizers.

In the coming days, GYLA's lawyer will get acquainted with the criminal case materials of the victims, which will allow us to fully assess the effectiveness of the investigation. At the moment, it is clear that the investigative body is in no hurry to identify all the individuals involved in the criminal acts, including the organizers, and bring charges against them.

GYLA urges the investigative bodies to:

       -Conduct the investigation in such a way that not only the persons directly involved in the criminal activities are fully identified but also all the organizers are identified and duly prosecuted;

      -Launch an investigation to analyze the actions of officials of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and ordinary police officers, in particular, to assess how adequately the mobilization of police forces and their  actions were planned and implemented to prevent/eliminate the violent development of events.