COORDINATION COUNCIL OF ARMENIAN ORGANIZATIONS IN FRANCE CONDEMNS GEORGIAN FOREIGN MINISTER
ArmInfo
2009-12-23 16:14:00
ArmInfo. On December 22 the Coordination Council of Armenian
Organizations in France (CCAF) came out with a statement condemning
Georgian Foreign Minister Grigol Vashadze.
"The Coordination Council of Armenian Organizations in France strongly
condemns the 25 Nov 2009 impudent lie of Georgian Foreign Minister
Grigol Vashadze before the members of the French Parliamentary
Committee for Foreign Affairs. When replying to the question asked by
French parliamentarian Francois Rocheblanc about Vahagn Chakhalyan’s
case and circumstances of its proceedings, the foreign minister
of Georgia told a lie about the reasons of conviction against the
politician of Javakhq and the degree of justice of the trial.
Answering a question posed by a group within the National Assembly of
France, the minister said: "The citizen of Georgia of Armenian origin,
whom you have mentioned, has been arrested based on very serious
charges: he was delivering information to a third country. I have no
right to mention which country." Chakhalyan was arrested in July 2008,
following a car bomb blast near the home of the chief of police in
Akhalkalak, the provincial center of the mostly Armenian-populated
region of Samtskhe-Javakheti in southern Georgia. The Georgian court
found Chakhalyan guilty of several crimes under the Criminal Code
of Georgia, including "acquisition and possession of firearms and
ammunition", "organizing a group action which grossly disrupted
public order", and "hooliganism committed against a government
representative." These are the three articles according to which
Chkhalyan, leader of the ‘United Javakhk Democratic Alliance’ political
movement was sentenced to 10 years of imprisonment.
Stating that Chakhalyan has "two or three" attorneys of various
origins and that involvement of foreign attorneys is banned by the
legislation of Georgia, G. Vashandze again tried to mislead the
parliamentarians. The Georgian minister intentionally concealed that
the law banning involvement of foreign attorneys into proceedings was
adopted on June 24 2009 whereas the application for authorization of
the French attorney was made yet in Nov 2008. The Georgian Justice
Minister developed relevant amendments and the parliament hastily
approved them hereby violating the point 3C of Article 6 of the
European Convention on Human Rights as well as Article 42 of the
Georgian Constitution.
The given violation was proved and condemned by Georgian Ombudsman.
The complaint of Chakhalyan’s lawyers which applied to the
Constitutional Court of Georgia, is underway at present. The
Coordination Council of Armenian organizations of France demands from
the authorities of Georgia to discharge Vahagn Chakhalyan immediately
and restore all his rights. It demands from the European Commissioner
for human rights – to set the matter for hearing; from PACE – to
direct a mission to Georgia to study practical application of the
European Convention on human rights protection: from chairman of
the National Assembly of France – to direct the protest note to his
Georgian counterpart in connection with the fact that Minister Grigol
Vashadze does not respect the law making body of France."