The opposition News Rights, Democratic Front and Industrialists parliamentary factions sent a letter to Georgian Parliamentary Chairperson Nino Burjanadze on July 14 and called for an appropriate reaction on facts indicated in the Georgian Public Defender’s report.
An agenda of the special session of the Parliament, which opened on July 13, envisages hearings on the Public Defender’s human rights report, which covers second half of 2005 and beginning of 2006.
In the report Public Defender Sozar Subari has voiced a strong criticism towards the law enforcement agencies, in particular over the Sandro Girgvliani’s high-profile murder case, the March 27 Tbilisi prison incident and excessive use of force in police operations.
In the letter to the Parliamentary Chairperson the opposition backed Subari’s “critical assessments” and once again demanded resignation of Interior Minister Vano Merabishvili, as well as bringing of criminal charges against those top officials from the Interior Ministry, who allegedly are behind Girgvliani’s murder case.
The opposition also demanded constitutional amendments in order to create an appropriate system of checks and balance. The Constitutional changes adopted in February 2004 – shortly after Mikheil Saakashvili became President – increased the powers of the President.
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