On behalf of the persons living in Pankisi Gorge, Human Rights Education and Monitoring Center (EMC) appealed to the Public Defender and the High Council of Justice of Georgia with the request to study the case of alleged discrimination towards them by the Judge of the Tbilisi City Court.

As it is known, the Tbilisi City Court is discussing the criminal cases of Ayuf Borchashvili, Giorgi Kh., Giorgi K. and Davit Ph. They are charged with crimes under Article 327¹ (recruiting a person as a member of a terrorist organization or for carrying out terrorist activities) and Article 328 (Joining a foreign terrorist organization or a terrorist organization controlled by a foreign state or supporting this organization in terrorist activities) of the Criminal Code.

The first court hearing on the case was open, but the following hearings were partially closed by the decision of the judge. On November 25, 2015, the judge ordered only the persons born on the territory of the Pankisi Gorge to leave the hearing. The decision was based on the argument presented in the motion of the prosecutor. The hearing involved questioning of witnesses living in Pankisi who had to testify against Ayuf Borchashvili; according to the motion, considering the authority of the criminal defendant and the purposes of protecting personal safety of the hearing participants and their family members, closing of the hearing was necessary. The judge checked IDs of the attendees and asked only the persons having Pankisi as their birthplace to leave the hearing.

According to EMC, by limiting the right of attending the hearing only to persons born in Pankisi (which essentially relates to the specificities of their ethnic background and religious identity), the judge used the rule of partial closure illegally, on the grounds of predetermined discriminatory stereotypes. During the decision-making process, the judge did not evaluate the expected concrete risks to the participants and did not assess whether these risks were substantive or reasonable. The court considered the Pankisi population as a whole, in an abstract manner, as a risk factor for the safety of attendees and through such generalization, discriminated against the persons born in Pankisi. The mentioned decision contributes to the continuation of the existing discriminatory policy and islamophobic attitudes towards the Muslim population of Pankisi and furthers their marginalization.

Due to the above-mentioned, EMC requests that:

• The Public Defender study the fact of alleged discrimination by the judge and issue a relevant recommendation due to the violation of the requirements of the Law on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination;
• The High Council of Justice study the alleged disciplinary misconduct of the judge of the Criminal Cases Panel of the Tbilisi City Hall and impose appropriate punishment.

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