With assistance of the LAS contracted public lawyer, Besik Talakhadze, the convicted Akaki Ch. who was accused of premeditated stealing committed in a group, was fully acquitted by the Supreme Court.
Akaki Ch. had previous conviction for committing the same crime. According to the verdict of Tbilisi City Court dated February 19, 2015 and the verdict of the Appellate Court dated July 10, 2015, he was convicted for committing the crimes envisaged by the paragraphs A and B, part 3, article 177: namely, Akaki Ch., together with Aleksi Ch. secretly took possession of the table which belonged to one of the organizations with limited liability and cost 100 GEL for the purpose of illegal appropriation.
The lawyer, Besik Talakhadze, appealed the verdict of the Appellate Court to the Supreme Court. The defense party demanded acquittal for Akaki Ch. basing on the following grounds:
There was the only direct evidence in the case – the testimony of Aleksi Ch. which was not enough to render the verdict of guilty according to the standard of the evidence being beyond the reasonable doubt. The other proofs were only indirect evidences and suppositions.
In the cassation appeal, the focus was also made to the fact that a video footage which was recognized inacceptable at the pretrial session was indirectly used in the motivation part of the appealed verdict. These evidences violated the provision of part 1, article 72 of Criminal Procedure Code of Georgia, stating that evidence obtained through violation of law is unacceptable if it deteriorates the legal situation of the defendant. Moreover, he mentioned in the appeal that the evidences cannot be considered reliable if it is impossible to check their source.
The Supreme Court shared the legal arguments of the lawyer, Besik Talakhadze and satisfied the cassation appeal, rendered a verdict of acquittal for Akaki Ch. and release him from the court room.