Transparency International Georgia has filed a lawsuit in the Tbilisi City Court against Georgia’s Internal Affairs Ministry on behalf of journalists and media workers injured during the mass violence organized by Russia-linked extremist groups on July 5, 2021.
The lawsuit is filed on behalf of 24 journalists from Mtavari TV, Formula TV, Pirveli TV and On.Ge, an online outlet, demanding compensation for the state’s failure to “fulfill its constitutional duty to ensure the safety of their activity.”
The evidence includes six-hour-long footage of the violence. Speaking at the press conference, TI Georgia’s Executive Director, Eka Gigauri said the Police, while having “all possible means to protect journalists” purposefully did not use them.
Gigauri also said the lawsuit has every chance to be eventually filed to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.
Zuka Gumbaridze, Formula TV CEO said almost one year since the violence, its organizers remain unpunished.
Using the planned LGBT pride as a pretext, Russia linked extremist violent group Alt Info together with representatives of the Georgian Orthodox Church organized mass violence as a result of which 53 journalists were beaten and one – Lekso Lashkarava – died days later.
Despite abundance of footage in which the Alt Info leaders—Konstantine Morgoshia and Zurab Makharadze call for the violence, none of them have been charged for its organization.
Georgian Public Defender Nino Lomjaria has demanded prosecutors to prosecute the two individuals as well as Spiridon Tskipurishvili, a clergyman over organizing group violence during the July 5.
The recently published U.S. Department of State Annual Human Rights Report said “the government’s failure to credibly investigate and prosecute the organizers of violence on July 5-6 resulted in impunity for those abuses.”
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