 Merab Ratishvili always maintained his innocence, and his case was submitted to the European Court of Human Rights.In a 2008 report by the then Public Defender of Human Rights in Georgia Sozar Subari Merab Ratishvili was identified as a political prisoner.A 2011 report by the Georgian Young Lawyers Association highlighted Merab Ratishvili’s case and concluded that “the preliminary investigation and court review were conducted with both material and procedural violations, meaning that the verdict delivered in Ratishvili’s case is unlawful.”.