In a terrible week for the Georgian judicial system, Giorgi Ugulava, former mayor of Tbilisi, has gone behind bars. Within days, several signs of blatant politicisation of the case emerged, including pressure on the judges, procedural mistakes and hesitations resulting in a very dubious sentence of four and a half years imprisonment.
This sentence could blemish the reputation of the current government for some time. The Georgian Dream coalition came to power in 2012 precisely on promises to restore justice after a decade of rule by President Mikheil Saakashvili. While Saakashvili may have de-corrupted the courts, many experts believe that he did not de-politicise them.
Warning signs
The warning sign came on 16 September, when Georgia's Constitutional court declared the holding of an accused person in pre-trial detention for over nine months unconstitutional.
