Web Portal on Human Rights in Georgia

(New York, June 11, 2007) – On May 23, 2007, Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili signed into law a set of amendments to three laws, lowering from 14 to 12 the minimum age of criminal responsibility for children for certain crimes. The amendments affected the criminal code, the code of criminal procedure, and the law on imprisonment, and enter into force July 1, 2008.

Three members of “Egalitarian Institute” - Davit Dalakishvili, Jaba Jishkariani and Levan Gogichaishvili are arrested. They have been sentenced to 25-day imprisonment by Tbilisi City Court. The reason of the arrest is the violation of public order and blocking the entrance of the General Prosecution Office. Human rights defenders evaluate this fact as the campaign against the freedom of Expression.

Unfortunately, violation of private property becomes a habit in Georgia. At present, the owners of the underground located on the Freedom Square face the danger. The owners of the market located on the mentioned place, have to free the territory till Monday, otherwise the market will be destroyed.

In April, after the reorganization in Kutaisi self-governance, 300 employees lost their jobs. Among them are 12 employees of children’s rights’ defender’s department.

Gurjaani district court is discussing the case of Giorgi Mchedlishvili, the inhabitant of Dedoplistskaro district. The prosecution blames 81 year-old man in stealing the five-tone iron tank. But the blamed person is accusing the former officials of local police in illegal scrap-iron business. According to him the investigator misled him to sign the confession testimony. “I am a veteran of the war. I have lived the whole life frankly and I do not want to die under the name of thief” – says 81 year-old man facing 6 years of imprisonment. He is asking the human rights organizations for help.

“The police officer locked the door, made a circle around me and beat me and kicked me like a fascist,” said Samvel Saponjian, a resident of the Akhalkalaki District. He claims that it was political vengeance and demands that the police officer be punished for the accident, which happened three years ago.

On December 7 2007 on Gori-Tbilisi high-way, American engineer Charles Thruceld knocked down Mamuka Gobejishvili when driving his car near the village of Agaiani. Gobejishvili died on the scene of the car-accident. Georgian law enforcers did not arrest American citizen on the place. At the moment Thruceld is in his native country. The investigation was dropped for the lack of evidences. However, the American citizen left Georgia before the Prosecutor’s Office made final conclusion. The relatives of the dead man still go on with their appeal and demand the punishment of the criminal.

Students of the Gori Multi-Discipline Small Academy oppose the Credit Union. The members of the Academy’s self-government demand their rights protected who have enrolled the Credit Union. The reason for enrollment sounded too challenging for them, the union offered them one- percent loan in exchange for educational fee.

Telavi District Court found Besik Mrelashviil guilty for killing twenty-year-old Giga Charbadze in a car-accident. Mrelashvili was a patrol policeman at the Internal Ministry. The judge Marika Tsertsvadze sentenced the accused to seven-year-old imprisonment and bailiffs detained him in the court room. The lawyer for the accused blames the court for partiality because he was not allowed to defend his client.

On March 3, Archil Surameli and his close relative, Zurab Djanelzashvili, were detained for thievery. They were blamed for having stolen plastic frames of billboards in Gori. Both of them own certificates from the Gori Psycho-Neurological Dispensary. Archil Surameli has “mental disability, slight behavioral pathology on moronity level”; as for Djanezashvili, he complaints of “psychic nervousness accompanied with organic hallucinations caused by injury and dysfunction of the brain.”

Argument between sixty-nine-year-old Omar Bachiashvili, a resident of Akhmeta, and the US Government has lasted for eight years already. Bachaishvili demanded 9 000 USD from the US Government because he claimed it was the pension of his late father. Although he received a part of the sum, he is now demanded to return part of the amount back. The Georgian citizen is about to go on with the argument in the USA.

Mother of the twenty-three-year-old Reziko Kakhiani, who was murdered in the Baghdadi District in 2002, has been permanently harassed and persecuted since the accident. The woman is suppressed because she has been demanding appropriate punishment for the murderer, Davit Mikaberidze (with the nickname, “Dzrokha”, cow).

Everybody knows the family of Kuraspedianis in the village of Banoja in the Tskaltubo District. Today, everybody praises them for their honesty and is very sorry for their poor life. On February 12 the IDP family accidentally got into a trouble. Group of ten policemen visited the family and searched the house without any explanation. Finally their visit finished with the detention of the housewife of the family.

Mikheil Tsertsvadze, director of the “Tontio”, Gori regional office of the Youth Tourist Centre, makes statements about the suppression he endures from the representatives of the local government. Tsertsvadze said that lawyer and other officials from the Gori Municipality get in touch with him and demand to leave the building of the Tontio; otherwise they threaten him with detention.

On April 4 an article, “Kvareli District Governor Is Blamed for Murdering Children”, was published on the web-site of the Human Rights Center and it caused public resonance. The Prosecutor’s Office renewed criminal investigation on the murder of juvenile brothers, Zakro and Kakha Gheleghutashvilis. Besides that, Mamuka Kuprashvili, the governor of the Kvareli District, offered resignation.

“Prosecutor’s brother protects the killer of my brother.” On March 25 terrible car accident happened in Telavi. Besik Mrelashvili, a patrol policeman, crashed twenty-year-old Giga Charbadze in the town center. Mrelashvili was drunk when driving his own car. Badly injured Charbadze died in the hospital. Having arrived at the scene of accident, patrol policemen tried to hush up the crime and made fraudulent documents as investigation materials show. However, the prosecutor’s office has not charged them yet. Besik Mrelashvili is not detained either; he paid 25 000 lari as a bail.

Gulnaz Arikh Khizi, a resident of the village of Kharadjala, in the Telavi District, threatens to commit a suicide. Azerbaijan woman said that the reason of her decision was a criminal case that was launched against her at the Telavi Police Station. She is accused for disobedience. Gulnaz Arikh Khizi claims that law enforcers pursue her on national grounds and threaten to detain her.

Statistics on dead prisoners is catastrophic. 28 prisoners died within three months-nobody remembers similar statistic. It is the statistic of the first three months of 2007. Several days ago, three prisoners died on the same day. Experts call the situation in the penitentiary system catastrophic and urge to take urgent preventive measures.

Prisoners started to complain about unbearable conditions in the Kutaisi Prison # 2 since the day it was opened. Food is delivered late, there is not sufficient medical base, and canalization system is in disorder and rain leaks into the building and makes ponds in the cells. These are details which have been criticized for so long time.

There is fifteen kilometers between the village and the district center. The villagers have to walk that distance for two years already. Teachers come from the neighboring villages who work at the public school in Kitaani. The population of the village has petitioned to the government. The Ministry of Education sent a special bus to transport teachers and pupils but that bus is still a ‘prisoner’ in the yard of the school watchman.