Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association [GYLA] sends complaint to European Court of Human Rights [ECHR] relating to investigation of July 5 case. Such a statement made today the Head of GYLA.

“The GYLA sent a complaint to the ECHR on behalf of 16 media representatives (journalists, cameramen, photographers) who were affected by the events of July 5, 2021.

In the complaint, the GYLA argues that Articles 3 (prohibition of torture), 10 (freedom of expression), 13 (right to an effective remedy) and 14 (prohibition of discrimination) of the European Convention have been violated.

We applied based on the fact that until now we see that the investigation into these cases is ineffective. The most alarming thing is that criminal charges have not been filed against any organizers until now, whereas there is a lot of public and open evidence. The Prosecutor’s Office simply does nothing.

I expect that the ECHR will establish important circumstances in this case, such as the fact that, for example, before July 5, government officials made statements that incited this violence, and on July 5, the Prime Minister made a statement that was the “green light” for the for hate groups.

Further, the Government did not mobilize an adequate number of law enforcement officers, that is, we were not effectively protected”, - said Nika Simonishvili.