The State Inspector's decision to punish the Justice Ministry for the unauthorised distribution of various disputed footages of imprisoned ex-President Mikheil Saakashvili surrounding his hunger strike and forced transfer to the prison clinic was overturned by the Tbilisi City Court on January 11.

The decision comes after the Georgian Dream-led Parliament voted on December 30 to disband the State Inspector's Service, which is responsible for monitoring personal data security and investigating abuses of power, and replace it with two distinct organisations, effective March 2022.

On January 11, the Inspector's Service stated that it hoped to obtain the Court's reasoned opinion in time to appeal the decision before the agency's dissolution.

The State Inspector's Service ruled on December 3 that the Justice Ministry and its Special Penitentiary Service had breached data processing standards in multiple instances in Saakashvili's case, according to Article 44 of the Law on Personal Data. The Ministry was fined USD 160, and the Penitentiary Service was fined USD 650.

According to the State Inspector, neither the Ministry nor the Penitentiary Service followed the State Inspector's directives to delete images and recordings including Saakashvili's personal data from their official online and social media profiles.

Instead, the Ministry and its agency filed separate petitions with Tbilisi City Court on December 17 to contest the Inspector's judgment, according to the statement.

Yet, the Inspector said it could provide all necessary case materials to the Court, amid “unreasonably” tight deadlines and the fact that the Court hearings took place when committees in Parliament deliberated on abolishing the State Inspector's Service.

Photos showing food supplements given to then-hunger-stricken Saakashvili as part of his therapy at Rustavi jail, as well as video footage of the ex-President ingesting the supplements, were aired by the Ministry and the penitentiary in November. They also published inflammatory footage, including one showing a distraught ex-president refusing to be transferred to a prison clinic and penitentiary staff pulling Saakashvili into the Gldani prison clinic.

Saakashvili secretly returned to Georgia from his self-imposed exile in late September and was arrested on October 1, on the eve of local elections. He was sentenced in absentia in 2018 on two separate abuse of power charges, and faces charges of exceeding official authority, misappropriation of public funds and exceeding official authority. The ex-President went on a hunger strike after his arrest and was forcibly transferred to the Gldani prison clinic on November 8 due to worsening health. He stopped the strike on November 19 after authorities agreed to take him to Gori military hospital. He was returned to Rustavi prison after the hospital controversially discharged him.