A complaint has been filed with the Constitutional Court, requesting annulment of a provision suspending sale of agriculture land to foreign nationals till the end of 2014.

Parliament passed amendments to the law on ownership of agricultural land, imposing moratorium on sale of land to foreign citizens in late June; the legislative amendment went into force on July 17 after President Saakashvili signed it into law.

An applicant, who challenged this provision in the Constitutional Court, is an Austrian citizen, Mathias Huter, a senior analyst and media program manager with Transparency International Georgia, Tbilisi-based watchdog group, which said in July that the amendment violates the constitutional right to property.

As an interim measure, the applicant has requested the Constitutional Court to suspend enforcement of the disputed provision of the law, pending court’s final verdict.