A/HRC/45/54 Constitutional Court against the law regulating the selection of candidates for positions as Supreme Court judges. The decision remained pending at the time of finalizing the present report. 17. OHCHR pursued its cooperation with the Georgian Bar Association. The OHCHR training on international human rights standards relating to the administration of justice continued to be integrated into professional courses for practising lawyers. During the state of emergency, OHCHR sustained capacity-building activities, via videoconference. 18. On 24 June 2019 the Prosecutor General’s Office announced that it had launched an investigation into the events of 20–21 June 2019, which was ongoing at the time of finalizing the present report. The Office of the Public Defender noted in its submission that the investigation into abuse of power by law enforcement personnel during the protest had tended to focus solely on identification of criminal acts by individual law enforcement officers, but was not aimed at determining the scope of responsibility of superior officials and did not establish or exclude the possibility that a crime had been committed by inaction or omission. The Public Defender stated that several steps that were necessary for an effective investigation had not been undertaken, such as seizure of records of handheld transceivers. According to the Government of Georgia, as a result of the investigation, criminal prosecution had been commenced against three officials of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. 19. Regarding the cases highlighted in the 2018 and 2019 reports of the High Commissioner to the Human Rights Council, 15 OHCHR received information that on 31 October 2019, the Holy Synod of the Patriarchate of the Georgian Orthodox Church requested the President of Georgia to pardon archpriest Giorgi Mamaladze, who had been convicted and imprisoned for attempted murder. This request was not granted and Mr. Mamaladze remains incarcerated. OHCHR also received information that the Azerbaijani journalist Afgan Mukhtarli had been released from prison in Azerbaijan in March 2020. Mr. Mukhtarli continues to allege that he was arbitrarily detained in Tbilisi in March 2017 and transported across the border to Azerbaijan with the involvement of high-level Georgian officials. According to the Government of Georgia, the Prosecutor General’s Office of Georgia communicated with Mr. Mukhtarli and expressed its readiness to interview him in person and conduct all relevant investigative actions in case he appears in Georgia. C. Combating torture and other forms of ill-treatment 20. Georgia continued to make progress in combating torture and other forms of illtreatment. After delays due to budgetary issues, the investigative mandate of the State Inspector came into force on 1 November 2019. 16 OHCHR assisted in organizing the launching event. On that occasion, the Prime Minister of Georgia and the Minister of Justice, among others, emphasized that the creation of this service reflected the commitment of Georgia to addressing the long-standing issue of ineffective investigations into human rights violations committed by the police, the Prosecutor General’s Office and penitentiary officers, which had generated a sense of impunity and undermined public trust in law enforcement agencies. In a special report presented on 21 January 2020 to Parliament, the Public Defender expressed concerns over the existence of “informal 15 16 6 Georgia, “Monitoring report on the selection of Supreme Court judicial candidates by the High Council of Justice of Georgia”, available at https://bit.ly/2Ytowz1. A/HRC/39/44, paras. 15–16; and A/HRC/42/34, para. 16. The Law on the State Inspector Service, adopted on 21 July 2018, entrusted that Service with the mandate of the abolished Office of the Data Protection Inspector. It further mandates the State Inspector Service to investigate allegations of serious human rights violations involving law enforcement officers. OHCHR had been advocating for the establishment of this entity since 2014.