Pandjikidze and Others v. Georgia

Information Note on the Court’s case-law No. 123October 2009Pandjikidze and Others v. Georgia - 30323/02Judgment 27.10.2009 [Section II]Article 6Criminal proceedingsArticle 6-1Tribunal established by lawInclusion without sufficient legal basis of lay judges on bench of criminal court: violation Facts – By a judgment of 2001, the Criminal Division of the Supreme Court, sitting as a bench of one professional judge and two lay judges, convicted the applicants of high treason in the form of a plot against the constitutional order; one of them was further convicted of the unlawful purchase and handling of weapons. They were each sentenced to three years’ imprisonment. In 2002 the Criminal Division, sitting as a bench of three professional judges, upheld that judgment.Law – Article 6 § 1: Until the abolition of the office in question in 2005, the lay judges at the Georgian Supreme Court were i …