5.  The applicants, listed in the appendix, were all professors who at the material time were working at Tbilisi State University (“the University”). They opposed reforms initiated by the new University administration as a part of the nation-wide higher education reform in 2004-2005 and had initiated several court proceedings against the University in that regard. As part of their activities, they also held numerous public meetings at the University, made public statements and wrote to various public officials, denouncing what they called the “destruction” of the University. The applicants, with the exception of Mr Tuskia, Ms Sikharulidze, and Mr D. Bakhtadze (the first, sixth and ninth applicants respectively), were at the material time members of the Grand Academic Council, the highest representative body of the University (composed of seventy-eight members), which operated under the University charter (approved by the President of Georgia on 13 July 2001) and which led the protests against the changes at the University.
6.  On 8 June 2005 the President of Georgia issued Presidential Decree no. 473, which, among other measures, repealed the University charter, thus abolishing the Grand Academic Council. The representatives of the Council challenged before the Constitutional Court of Georgia the constitutionality and legality of Presidential Decree no. 473 and several newly amended provisions of the Law on Higher Education. On 25 July 2005 the Constitutional Court rejected the above-mentioned challenge as inadmissible.
7.  On 5 April 2006 the President of Georgia appointed Mr G.Kh. as acting Rector („რექტორი“) of the University.
8.  On 19 June 2006 the already-dissolved Grand Academic Council organised a meeting of University staff. After the meeting, several former members of the Council met the new acting Rector of the University, Mr G.Kh., for the purpose of expressing their concerns to him regarding the changes at the University. The meeting ended without any results and the University employees – among them all of the applicants – decided to stay at the University in one of the lecture halls and to hold a further meeting themselves.
9.  According to the applicants, at around 1 a.m. the police arrived at the University. Without giving any explanations or any prior warning, they forced everyone out of the University building. Despite the applicants’ repeated requests, the police officers did not show them any order authorising the removal of the people gathered.
10.  The next day, the applicants, along with other employees of the University, gathered again in one of the lecture halls of the University. Towards the evening the police allegedly again dispersed their meeting.
11.  On 3 July 2006, in response to the request of Mr Sanadze (the fourth applicant), the acting Rector of the University authorised a meeting of University employees in the Grand Hall of the main University building between 3.30 p.m. and 7 p.m. of the same day. In the letter authorising the gathering G.Kh. stressed that the participants of the planned gathering were asked to maintain order and to conclude the meeting before 7 p.m.
12.  At the meeting, which started as planned, the already-dissolved Grand Academic Council “elected” the second applicant as the new Rector of the University. Thereafter, a group of about twenty people, including all of the applicants, headed to the office of the acting Rector in order to inform the latter of the Council’s decision and to demand his resignation.
13.  According to the applicants, they entered the acting Rector’s office without using any force and informed him of the Grand Council’s decision. They asked G.Kh. to leave the office; the latter, however, refused to do so. While the meeting at the Rector’s office continued, the police entered the University grounds. The police officers went straight to the office of the acting Rector, who upon their entrance immediately left the room. Afterwards, the police asked the applicants, along with the other people present, to leave. They left the Rector’s office without any resistance and moved to a lecture hall.
14.  The Government disputed the applicants’ version of events. According to the official version of events, at least twenty people forced their way into G.Kh.’s office, while dozens of others stayed in the reception area and the corridor chanting slogans against G.Kh. The second applicant informed the acting Rector of the former Grand Academic Council’s decision and demanded that he leave his office within ten minutes. The University security service was no longer in control of the situation and the functioning of the University administration was disrupted. Given that the applicants and other protesters were refusing to leave, the police were called to restore order. G.Kh. left his office as soon as the police arrived. Then it took more than one hour for the police to negotiate the applicants’ removal from the Rector’s office.
15.  According to the case file, after their removal from the Rector’s office, the applicants – together with other protesters (in total, some 400 people) – gathered in one of the lecture halls of the main University building, where they continued their protest. The applicants alleged that at around 11 p.m. the police had closed the doors of the lecture hall and prevented the people inside from leaving it. They had been locked in the lecture hall without access to water, food or toilet facilities until approximately 8-10 a.m. the next day.
16.  On 3 July 2006 criminal proceedings were initiated under Article 226 of the Criminal Code of Georgia against unidentified perpetrators in respect of the organisation and participation in group actions violating public order.
17.  According to the applicants on 4 July 2006 the Minister of Education held a press briefing denouncing the events that had taken place at the University on the preceding day. He referred to those involved in the 3 July 2006 events as “hooligans” and gave an assurance that they would all bear responsibility for their actions.
18.  Over the following several days, twenty witnesses were questioned in connection with the events of 3 July 2006 – among them six police patrol officers, three members of the University security service, and eleven administrative staff members (including the acting Rector, G.Kh., and his deputy). The staff members (eyewitnesses to the events) all identified the applicants as being among those who had forced their way into the Rector’s office, insulted him and demanded his resignation. They noted that while there had been no physical confrontation, the group of so-called “protesting professors” had been acting in a highly disrespectful manner, chanting insulting expressions against Mr G.Kh. They also claimed that the University had remained paralysed during the incident with several meetings being disrupted and the Rector and several members of the University administration being prevented from carrying out their duties.
19.  The acting Rector testified that around twenty people, among them all the applicants, in disregard of the orders of the security staff, had burst into his office. The second applicant had informed him of the former Grand Academic Council’s decision and had “categorically” (კატეგორიულად) demanded that he leave his office, “bag and baggage”, (ბარგი-ბარხანა) within ten minutes. G.Kh. explained that their meeting had continued against a background of noise and chanting, with the protestors chanting “leave, leave”. He had not been personally insulted, although his colleagues had told him that protesters in the corridor adjacent to his office had been chanting insulting slogans. In reply to a direct question, he explained that no foul language had been used by protesters in his office, either in respect of him or of his colleagues. He remembered, however, Mr Dolidze inciting via cell phone other protesters to join them in the acting Rector’s office. Lastly, G.Kh. noted that the incident in his office had lasted for about an hour and a half, paralysing not only his work but the functioning of the whole administration of the University.
20.  The security service members, who were also questioned during the pre-trial investigation, claimed that they had been unable to identify the professors involved in the events by name. They confirmed, however, that a large group of about fifty people – in disobedience of the orders given by the security service – had entered the reception area of the office of the Rector by force. Then around fifteen or twenty people had forced their way into the Rector’s office, where they had stayed for about two hours and until the police secured their removal from the office.
21.  On 5 July 2006 the second, fourth, fifth, seventh and eighth applicants were also questioned as witnesses in the course of the above‑mentioned criminal proceedings.
22.  On 24 July 2006 several members of the former Grand Academic Council, among them the second, third, fourth, fifth and seventh applicants, sent a letter to the President of Georgia complaining about the events of 19‑20 June and 3-4 July 2006. With reference to the events of 3-4 July 2006, they made a particular complaint that they, along with several hundred other people, had been locked in the University lecture hall for the whole night. They alleged that this had amounted to inhuman and degrading treatment, as they had been denied access to drinking water and a toilet and had been left without fresh air. They requested the initiation of criminal proceedings in this regard.
23.  A copy of the above-mentioned letter was sent to the Prosecutor General of Georgia. In support of their request, the applicants submitted statements given by fifteen people accounting in detail for the events of 19‑20 June and 3-4 July 2006.
24.  On 29 July 2006 the relevant prosecutor issued a ruling terminating the criminal proceedings concerning the alleged organisation and participation in group actions violating public order. The prosecutor concluded that the actions of the applicants had not comprised elements of a crime. The ruling read further as follows:
“They committed offences – namely arbitrary behaviour, a minor violation of public order, and disobeying the lawful instructions of law-enforcement personnel – which constitute administrative offences under Articles 174, 166 and 173 of the Code of Administrative Offences.”
25.  In the operative part of the prosecutor’s ruling, the prosecutor stated that the ruling, along with the case file, was to be sent to the Tbilisi City Court in order for administrative proceedings to be conducted against the applicants.
26.  In the same ruling the prosecutor also decided on the termination of the proceedings that apparently had been opened against the police officers in respect of their alleged unlawful use of force on 3-4 July 2006, finding the complaint lodged by the applicants in that connection unsubstantiated. The decision to discontinue the criminal proceedings provided in its operative part a fifteen-day time-limit for an appeal. The prosecutor’s ruling did not mention the applicants’ complaint concerning the events of 19‑20 June 2006.
27.  The applicants were served with a copy of the above-mentioned ruling late in the evening of 29 July 2006. They were told at the same time that a hearing in the administrative proceedings initiated against them had been scheduled for the next day.
28.  On 30 July 2006 a hearing took place at the Tbilisi City Court. The applicants objected that owing to the initiation of the administrative proceedings they could not avail themselves of the opportunity to challenge the prosecutorial ruling of 29 July 2006. They furthermore complained that they had not had sufficient time to acquaint themselves with the relevant material in the case file and to hire a lawyer. The applicants also requested that the acting Rector of the University and the security staff of the University be questioned. The prosecutor, for his part, requested the questioning of three of the police officers involved in the events that had developed in the Rector’s office on 3 July 2006. The judge allowed a request lodged by the prosecutor for the three police officers to be examined in court and postponed the hearing until 3 August 2006.
29.  At the hearing on 3 August 2006 the applicants reiterated their request for the acting Rector to be examined in court. They furthermore requested that the court hear the deputy Rector of the University and four other eyewitnesses to the events of 3 July 2006, including two journalists who had not been questioned at the pre-trial stage of the discontinued criminal proceedings. The judge granted the applicants leave to question the four new witnesses, while refusing their request for the questioning of the acting Rector and his deputy. In that connection, the court reasoned that those two individuals had already been questioned at the pre-trial stage and observed that their statements had been included in the case file.
30.  According to the minutes of the 3 August 2006 hearing, the applicants challenged the factual circumstances of the events of 3 July 2006, as presented by the prosecutor. They maintained that they had not broken into the Rector’s office, but rather that they had entered the office and had sat there calmly without using any force; that they had not insulted or threatened the acting Rector, but had simply presented him with the decision of the Grand Academic Council; and that they had not disobeyed the instructions of the police, but had left the Rector’s office within ten or fifteen minutes of being ordered to do so by the police. The second applicant stated that he had been taken out of the office sitting on a chair because he had apparently looked very tired. The applicants’ lawyers also argued that the Rector’s office did not constitute a public space for the purposes of Article 166 of the Code of Administrative Offences (“CAO”) (see paragraph 47 below) and that in any event the applicants had simply been exercising their right to freedom of assembly and freedom of expression, as provided for in the Constitution of Georgia. Lastly, they alleged that the prosecutor had presented the case in a manner suggesting the collective administrative liability of the applicants, as the individual role of each applicant in the events of 3 July 2006 had not been identified.
31.  The applicants also reiterated their complaint that they had been locked in the University lecture hall for the night of 3-4 July 2006 without their having access to water or toilets. They tried to put to the prosecutor several questions in this regard but the presiding judge dismissed the questions as irrelevant, having no bearing on the case.
32.  During the hearing of 3 August 2006 the following witnesses were questioned. V.J., a member of the University security service, claimed that about fifty people – disregarding his orders and pushing him away – had forced their way to the reception area of the Rector’s office. In reply to the judge’s question, he said that he could not recall exactly who had pushed him. He furthermore stated that various protesters had been making insulting statements and noise and that as a result the work in the main building of the University had been disrupted.
33.  According to the statement given in court by G.Ch., a police patrol officer, at the moment of his arrival at the University there had been around 200 people protesting outside. He had entered the building and had tried to enter the Rector’s office, which had been blocked by protestors. After making his way through protesters and entering the office of G.Kh, he had seen around twenty people inside. It had taken him and the other officers about one hour to persuade the protesters to leave the office. In reply to a question he clarified that no one had physically resisted the police, but that the protesters had simply refused to leave the office. He also specified that insulting statements had been made by protestors in the corridor and not in the acting Rector’s office.
34.  Z.S., another police officer, confirmed that while no force had been used, they had spent an hour persuading a group of about twenty people to leave the Rector’s office. He said that Mr Mebonia (the second applicant) had been taken out of the office still sitting on a chair as he had refused to stand up and leave by himself. He added that he recalled all of the applicants, except for Ms Sikharulidze (the sixth applicant), being inside the Rector’s office. The third police officer, K.B., who was also questioned in court, similarly maintained that there had been no physical confrontation inside the office, but that it had taken a while before those inside had agreed to leave.
35.  On the same date the Court examined two members of the University staff, who gave evidence similar to their pre-trial statements (see paragraph 18 above). In addition, the court questioned two journalists and two professors, all of whom had been among the group of protesters on 3 July 2006. All four claimed that there had been no confrontation (either physical or verbal) in the office of the Rector, that the group had been simply demanding the resignation of G.Kh., and that they had left the office at the request of the police.
36.  By a decision of 4 August 2006 the Tbilisi City Court found the first, second, third, fourth, fifth, seventh and eight applicants guilty of the above‑mentioned administrative offences under Articles 166, 173 and 174 of the CAO and imposed a fine of 100 Georgian laris (GEL – approximately 45 euros) on each of them. The court terminated the proceedings concerning the alleged disobeying of a lawful order given by the police (Article 173) with respect to the sixth and ninth applicants, finding that they had left the office of the Rector before the arrival of the police and held them guilty of the administrative offences under Articles 166 and 174 of the CAO only, imposing a fine of GEL 100 on each of them (see paragraph 39 below).
37.  In reaching its decision, the Tbilisi City Court concluded that the Grand Academic Council had begun acting unlawfully starting from 8 June 2005, when the old University charter had been repealed by Presidential Decree no. 473. Consequently, the court found that the restoration of the dissolved body, the impugned election of the new University Rector on 3 July 2006, and the subsequent demand for the resignation of G.Kh. in view of the election had been unlawful and constituted the administrative offence arbitrary behaviour within the meaning of Article 174 of the CAO (see paragraph 47 below).
38.  In connection with the charge of a minor breach of public order (minor hooliganism), the court established that the applicants had burst into the office of G.Kh., calling for his resignation. They had demanded, in an insulting manner, that he immediately leave his office and take all his belongings with him. The court concluded that given that the applicants had occupied the office of the acting Rector against his will for about two hours and had disregarded his repeated requests for them to leave it in order to allow everyone to resume their work, their behaviour had amounted to insulting harassment (შეურაცხმყოფელი გადაკიდება) with respect to G.Kh. as well as the other staff present, and to “other similar action” that had violated public order and peace. The Tbilisi City Court dismissed the applicants’ argument that the Rector’s office was merely a private working space, reasoning that the presence of the public rendered it a public space for the purposes of the CAO. As to the submission by the defence that the applicants had simply been exercising their right to freedom of assembly and freedom of expression, as provided in the Constitution of Georgia, the court concluded as follows:
“The court notes that although a person is entitled to exercise the rights and freedoms enshrined in Articles 19, 24 and 25 of the Constitution, he or she is at the same time obliged, in the process of exercising his or her rights, to abstain from violating others’ rights and interests, from encroaching upon [others’] honour and dignity, [and] from violating ... public order ... . [He or she] should not, in exercising his or her constitutional rights, commit acts prohibited by law, which, in the court’s view, in fact happened on 3 July 2006 in the office of the Rector ...”
39.  As for the charge of disobeying a lawful order given by the police, the court concluded that the sixth and ninth applicants had left the office of G.Kh. before the arrival of the police. They were thus acquitted of the above-mentioned charge. As for the remainder of the applicants, the court established that despite the repeated requests of the police, they had refused to leave the office of the acting Rector. In the court’s view, notwithstanding the fact that no physical force had been used, the applicants’ refusal for more than an hour to obey the orders of the police had amounted to a breach of Article 173 of the CAO (see paragraph 47 below).
40.  The applicants appealed against the first-instance court’s decision to the chairwoman of the Tbilisi Court of Appeal. They complained that there had been no record of an administrative offence having been made individually in respect of each of them, that their individual roles in the commission of the impugned administrative offences had not been established, and that the proceedings had been brought in a manner suggesting their collective liability. In that connection, they referred to the statements of witnesses who had noted that there had been two hundred people outside and twenty people inside the acting Rector’s office during the events of 3 July 2006 and that it was impossible to identify the individuals who had allegedly insulted the acting Rector and forced their way into his office. The applicants also complained of the failure of the Tbilisi City Court to examine the acting Rector and his deputy in the course of the trial. Lastly, they challenged the categorisation of their actions as administrative offences by the first-instance court, submitting that they had simply been exercising their freedom of expression and freedom of assembly.
41.  On 4 September 2006, the chairwoman of the Tbilisi Court of Appeal, sitting privately in her office and without holding an oral hearing, dismissed the applicants’ appeal as unsubstantiated. She concluded that the decision of the first-instance court had been lawful and properly reasoned. The operative part of the decision of 4 September 2006 indicated that no further appeal was possible.
42.  The case file contains a copy of a television report by the Imedi broadcasting company about the events of 3 July 2006. As was shown in Imedi’s recording of the events of 3 July 2006, at least twenty people had entered the reception area of the acting Rector’s office by force, in disregard of the protests of the security staff and reception staff. Then some of them had walked into the office itself, notifying G.Kh. of the decision of the Grand Academic Council and demanding his resignation. According to the video, dozens of protesters had simultaneously gathered in the corridor adjacent to the acting Rector’s office and had chanted “step down!”
43.  Imedi also ran an extract from the press briefing held by the Minister of Education on 4 July 2006. While commenting on the events in the University the preceding day, the Minister said the following:
“Those people, who went beyond all the limits of academia and ethics yesterday, will of course, face responsibility for that.”