The Tbilisi Court of Appeals has reduced the sentences of six individuals convicted of participating in the July 2021 mass violence riots from five to four years.
Using the planned LGBT pride as a pretext, the mass violence, organized by Russia-linked and Georgian Government-backed groups, such as Alt Info, left 53 journalists one of whom, a TV Pirveli cameraman Lekso Lashkarava, died days later.
The six individuals in question were involved precisely in the attack involving Lashkarava.
The verdict partially overturned Tbilisi City Court’s April 2002 ruling by clearing the men of taking part in “group violence.” The Court instead upheld their sentences on other, less grave counts.
The Georgian Government has been subject to intense criticism both at home and abroad for failing, or rather refusing, to prosecute and meaningfully punish organizers of the pogrom.
Rights and media freedom groups denounced the verdict as a chilling precedent.
Casting doubt on the Prosecutor General’s Office’s actual will to punish the perpetrators of the July 5, 2021 pogrom, the Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association (GYLA) said the ruling strengthens the syndrome of impunity.
Mariam Gogosashvili, executive director of the Georgian Charter of Journalistic Ethics, said that the sentence reduction “will further encourage violence against journalists.”
Despite the abundance of evidence where Alt Info leaders call and lead violent mobs on camera, none of them were ever charged.
Meaningfully prosecuting organisers of the pogrom is one of the European Commission’s 12 recommendations that Georgia must carry out in order to obtain the EU’s membership candidacy status.
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