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Georgia’s judiciary has come under fire from NGOs and officials after a 27-year-old man charged with stabbing three people, including a police officer, was released on bail. The incident happened on 13 January in Tbilisi outside the Bassiani nightclub.

Tamaz Kvlividze stabbed two security guards and a police officer with a knife, the Interior Ministry said in a statement, report­ed­ly after being denied entry to Bassiani.

Kvlividze was initially released on ₾30,000 ($12,000) bail, sparking wide­spread criticism and accu­sa­tions of pref­er­en­tial treatment, because of the accused’s social status. The decision to grant him bail was later over­turned after prosecutor’s took the case to the Court of Appeals.

‘A privileged family’

The incident was quickly brought into the spotlight after Bassiani’s founder, Naja Orashvili, posted on Facebook saying Kvlividze came from a ‘priv­i­leged family, who has proved that their supe­ri­or­i­ty ranks higher than the Georgian con­sti­tu­tion’.

Kvlividze's lawyer, Zaza Meskhi told Liberali Magazine that there was ‘nothing serious in the incident’.

‘There was an argument when he was denied entrance to the club, followed by a mis­un­der­stand­ing. Nothing serious happened, several club employees received injuries when they tried to take the knife from him’, Meskhi said.

Kvlividze’s father, business person Paata Kvlividze, was quoted by Pal­i­traNews as saying that his status had nothing to do with the decision to grant his son bail, as he has no one to ask to interfere and is currently unem­ployed.

‘Probably the judge saw that [my son] is a decent person, that he’s not a murderer. It was a crime of passion. You know how security guards behave, they don’t behave decently. It was probably self-defence’, Paata Kvlividze told said.

‘A shadow over the judiciary’s reputation’

The court’s decision to grant him bail was crit­i­cised by politi­cians both from the oppo­si­tion and ruling parties. Deputy Par­lia­men­tary Chair Tamar Chugoshvili said that ‘this is one of the cases casting a shadow over the judiciary’s rep­u­ta­tion’.

‘When somebody, whomever it is, inflict­ing such severe injuries to others gets out on bail, it raises questions and casts a shadow over the judiciary’s rep­u­ta­tion’, Chugoshvili said.

She said cases like this should be handled with more respon­si­bil­i­ty.

Sopo Verdzeuli from local rights group the Human Rights Education and Mon­i­tor­ing Centre, told Liberali it must be deter­mined whether ‘double standards’ were applied in this case.

‘When others with less severe charges are remanded in custody and the judge decided to accept bail in this par­tic­u­lar case, espe­cial­ly when there are questions regarding the social status of the accused, it should be deter­mined whether there is a double standard’, said Verdzeuli.

Interior Minister Giorgi Gakharia commented that ‘when it comes to the safety and dignity of a policeman, the ministry as well as any citizen must be uncom­pro­mis­ing’.

The decision to grant Kvlividze bail was over­turned by the Court of Appeals on 17 January, and he will now remain in pre-trial detention. Kvlividze’s lawyer had expressed hope that state­ments from officials would not influence the appeal court's decision, deeming these state­ments pressure on the court.