On April 7, 2008, criminal defense lawyers in Georgia went on strike. Dozens of attorneys announced a three-day work stoppage, arguing that the courts had become an “extension of the prosecutor’s office.” The protest was sparked by lawyer Malkhaz Jangirashvili’s hunger strike. While other opposition figures were staging hunger strikes outside Parliament, Jangirashvili was protesting near the Public Defender’s Office, demanding legal reforms that would allow the review of “unlawful” court rulings.

When the lawyers’ strike began, Jangirashvili was on the 25th day of his hunger strike. On April 7, he ended it after collecting the 40,000 signatures required to submit his legislative initiative.

The proposed legislative amendment, organized by the opposition coalition and several NGOs, sought to grant the Public Defender’s Office and parliamentary investigative commissions the authority to review court cases. Their findings would then serve as grounds for mandatory reconsideration of those cases in court.