Georgia’s Constitutional Court declines to question unidentified witnesses in party ban case

The Plenum of Georgia’s Constitutional Court on Thursday rejected a motion by the respondent party, the Coalition for Change - Gvaramia, Melia, Girchi, Droa, seeking to question witnesses whose identities the motion’s authors were unable to specify.

Nika Gvaramia had requested that the witnesses be questioned, acknowledging that their identities were unknown and would need to be established.

Judge Revaz Nadaraia said the ruling was final and not subject to appeal. It will be published on the Constitutional Court’s website within 15 days.

“The requests set out in the motion do not raise any issues that would be impossible to question or examine at subsequent stages, and at this stage, the Court was not convinced of the necessity of obtaining this evidence”, he said.

“At the same time, the Court has an established practice whereby, if the evidence submitted by the parties during the proceedings proves insufficient for the Court to reach an objective and impartial decision, it may, in accordance with the inquisitorial principle, request on its own initiative the evidence it considers necessary to reach such a decision”, the judge continued.

He added that this practice was well established, noting that the evidence the party had sought to have examined formed the basis of its conclusions.

The motion was submitted during proceedings concerning a request to declare five political parties unconstitutional and ban them. Gvaramia had asked the Constitutional Court to obtain evidence and summon witnesses but was unable to specify which witnesses should be called, saying their identities had yet to be established.