Ruling party MPs telling the public I am against church – ombudswoman

Georgian Public Defender Nino Lomjaria said on Friday that the MPs of the ruling Georgian Dream party were trying to discredit her by telling the public that she was fighting against the church, referring to her  2020 lawsuit against the parliament, which had allowed the othodox Church to buy up to 20 hectares of forest around all churches and monasteries across the country and legalize them as a private property. 

“The lawsuit was filed against the parliament of Georgia and not the church. The  Constitutional Court has already made two decisions on similar cases a few years ago and in both cases it ruled that a number of laws that give one religious organisation advantages and privileges, in the direction of taxation or privatization, and other religious organizations did not, were unconstitutional, and therefore, the Constitutional Court suspended the operation of several norms”, Lomjaria said. 

Several MPs of the ruling party have also slammed Lomjaria for “supporting” imprisoned former president Mikheil Saakashvili, while the public advocate reminding them of her duties. 

In her report Lomjaria, whose term expires in December, said that 161 cases of discrimination had been identified by her office last year, while 17 percent of the cases had been related to alleged discrimination based on political opinion.

She said that her office had received 4,666 reports of human rights violations, with 11,126 calls made to its hotline.