Representatives of three fractions of the European Parliament address President and Prime Minister of Georgia. They " strongly support the continuation of Georgia’s democratic transformation, the granting of a visa free regime by the European Union, and further links between Georgia and the European Union. "

However they believe that it is important to solve such problems, which have the potential to undermine this progress

" We urge the Georgian Government to comply with the final judgment of the Grand

Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights regarding the case of the imprisoned

Secretary General of the main opposition party and former Prime Minister, Vano

Merabishvili. In its landmark judgment of 14th June 2016, the court ruled that when

prosecuting Merabishvili, the Georgian authorities pursued a "hidden agenda" and

breached Article 18 of the of the European Convention of Human Rights (only the

seventh such instance of this in history).1

 We note that the Constitutional Court of Georgia in its full composition ruled in late

2015 that the extended pre-trial detention of another high-profile opposition figure, the

former Mayor of Tbilisi, Gigi Ugulava, was “anti constitutional and illegal”.

2

Following Ugulava’s release and re-aarest within one day, the Constitutional Court has

since been unable to deliver another judgment on his case, allegedly due to political

pressure."- is mentioned in the letter.

The European MPs mention Rustavi2 as well . " We note that similar allegations of political pressure on the Constitutional Court have

also been stated as a reason for the Court’s inability to rule on an allegedly long since

reached decision regarding a case involving Rustavi 2, the only major pro-western

media outlet remaining outside of Government control. 5 Whilst we hope that the

Constitutional Court will be able to deliver a judgment soon, we remind the Georgian

Government of the importance of respecting and ensuring media freedom and

pluralism."