In the case Kezerashvili v. Georgia the Court held that there had been a violation of the right to a fair trial on account of a lack of objective impartiality of the Supreme Court, and no violation of the right to a fair trial on account of the Supreme Court’s reversal of the applicant’s acquittal by the lower courts.

The case concerned a set of proceedings in which the applicant, a former Minister of Defence, was tried, acquitted, and ultimately convicted, in absentia, of embezzlement.

The Court found that the inclusion of the Judge who had been Georgia’s Prosecutor General when the appeal proceedings were pending, in the bench of judges which heard the applicant’s high-profile case, had been sufficient to cast doubt on the objective impartiality of the Supreme Court in its ruling on the appeal in the case. At the same time, having reviewed the judgment and the reasons contained within it, it did not appear to the Court that the Supreme Court’s findings had been arbitrary or manifestly unreasonable to the point of prejudicing the fairness of the proceedings or resulting in a “denial of justice”.

• Press release