Prosecutor and Defense Side Presented Final Speeches at Akhalaia’s Court Hearing

Salome Chkheidze

Prosecutor and defense side made final speeches at the trial on criminal case on former minister of defense and interior Bachana Akhalaia. Court will more likely pass verdict on the episodes of physical assault of soldiers in Senaki brigade, illicit restriction of freedom of businessman Zviad Abesadze and about physical assault of soldiers in Vaziani unit on July 27.

At the trial of July 23, prosecutor made final speech on the case of Bachana Akhalaia - former defense minister, Giorgi Kalandadze – former land force commander, Gaga Mkurnalidze – former deputy head of the penitentiary department, Zurab Shamatava- commander of the Vaziani Fourth Brigade, Merab Kikabidze – commander of the Senaki Second Brigade and employees of the penitentiary department Manuchar Daraselia and Giorgi Kintsurashvili. Defense side also presented part of his final speech.

When making the final speech, prosecutors read testimonies of the witnesses; they underlined every circumstance, which created reasonable ground to assume that the accused people really committed the alleged crimes.

The case was launched into three episodes – collective punishment of soldiers in Senaki brigade; illicit restriction of freedom of businessman Zviad Abesadze and physical assault of platoon commander Paata Paatashvili from Vaziani brigade for having a cell phone in the unit.

Prosecutor claims defense side permanently tried to hush the crime but in vain.

“In relation with Senaki episode, they tried to develop the version of a riot and stated that soldiers were not punished in fact; then they changed position and said that rangers of foreign countries are trained with similar methods but they forgot to mention that abroad people join these courses voluntarily and not under force,” prosecutors said. 

As for the episode about Zviad Abesadze, prosecutors said Gigi Kalandadze tried to divert accusation about the conflict with Abesadze on the head of penitentiary department Davit Chakua because the latter is sought. However, prosecutors said, Kalandadze’s guiltiness in the episode is proved by phone-calls. 

“Since the accused people were senior governmental officials, they bore ultimate responsibility to respect the law; they degraded the reputation of the armed forces. We kindly request the court to consider the evidence provided by the prosecutors which prove our reasonable assumption that they committed the crime and pass guilty verdict on them,” the prosecutor addressed to the judge.

Lawyer Gogita Gabaidze said the evidence provided by the prosecutors were not well-grounded and said the accusation is fake. 

“Today, the prosecutor’s office is judging heroes while Bedukadze, whose guiltiness was proved, was freed and almost declared a hero,” Gogita Gabaidze said in his final speech. 

Gigi Kalandadze’s lawyer said if the accused people really wanted to do harm to Abesadze, they would have evaporated him so that nobody would have ever learned his whereabouts. So, this accusation is absurd.

Lawyers also said that defense side had used testimonies of the witnesses which they had made to the investigation and not at the trial that is inadmissible. 

“Their final speech mainly relayed on assumptions and testimonies made during investigation were used as demonstration examples, which were not published at the trial and cannot be used as evidence,” lawyer Davit Dekanoidze said.

Prosecutors said statements made by the defense side were absurd and said the provided evidence is enough for the court to pass guilty verdict on the accused people.

Next trial is scheduled at 12:00 pm on July 26. The defense side will finalize their final speech at the hearing, accused people will also present their opinions and supposedly, judge will pass verdict.