“The acquittal of Nika Katsia is a great joy for everyone, something our society desperately needs, but we must not forget that for every brick laid for justice, eleven bricks of injustice have been laid,” said Georgia’s fifth president, Salome Zurabishvili, following the conclusion of a court session where journalist Nika Katsia, charged with a drug-related crime, was acquitted.
Zurabishvili congratulated the public on Katsia’s release and noted that there is still much to fight for to ensure a truly independent judiciary.
“First and foremost, I want to congratulate everyone, the entire society, the society that has been experiencing such emotions these days, on this one brick laid toward justice.
What we have just heard—Nika Katsia’s acquittal, following his remarkable speech—is a great joy for everyone, something our society desperately needs. However, this may also be one of the explanations for the regime’s actions. Because of this, we must not forget that for every brick laid for justice, eleven bricks of injustice have been laid. There was no evidence against Nika Katsia in court, and the judge acknowledged this, but there was also no evidence in the previous court cases. All these people are innocent.
It is clear today that this judiciary is controlled. I will say once again that one or two bricks [of justice] do not mean that others are guilty. On the contrary, everything shows that no one is guilty; there is not a single piece of evidence in any case, and these tactics are well-known from Russian practice. This is what we still have to fight for—the judiciary must become truly independent. What we saw in the first half of the day, the judge with her glassy eyes, shows that this is controlled.
By the way, it cannot go unmentioned that at a time when Tea Tsulukiani comes out with so-called commission conclusions about the previous regime, those conclusions say nothing about the fact that there was an unjust judiciary back then as well. If we have an unjust judiciary today, it is a continuation of that, because the same Murusidzes are still in charge today,” stated Salome Zurabishvili.
Salome Zurabishvili: We must not forget that for every brick laid for justice, eleven bricks of injustice have been laid. No one is guilty; there is not a single piece of evidence in any case, and these are well-known tactics from Russian practice
