Old Faults of the New Government

Old Faults of the New Government

Victims of Violence by High Ranking Officials Need Help

Arbitrary detentions, biased investigations, torture of detainees to coerce confessions and degrading treatment towards detainees have remained the well used method of law enforcement officers. This case is about D.M., who was used as a tool for personal revenge against Mikheil and Valeri Nemsitsveradzes.

At 9 a.m. on May 13, 2004 law enforcers detained D.M for illegally transporting weapons. Later the charges were changed and he was charged by the Prosecutor’s Office of the attempted premeditated murder of Kakha Giuashvili, MP, which was ordered by Mikheil Nemsitsveradze, Head of Batumi Branch of Joint Stock “Intellect Bank” and his brother, Valeri Nemsitsveradze. The brothers were detained on the same evening.

The interrogation of D.M and his confession occurred under very suspicious circumstances. Specifically, the confession was written, not by the defendant himself, but by investigator P. Balakhashvili, who does not deny this. According to him, D.M felt bad and refused to contact his relatives or his attorney.

His relatives weren’t permitted to see for two weeks. According to K. M., when meeting her husband in N7 Jail the latter told her that he was tortured and treated inhumanely and that his state of health had worsened. Law enforcement officers applied physical and psychological pressure on the prisoner from the first day of his detention. From this first moment, the police hit him with a heavy object until he passed out. According to the victim, he was forced to disclose the Nemsitsveradze brothers in the Prosecutor’s Office as well as make a confession. Police coerced the confession by torturing him in different ways, including electric shock. They also exerted psychological pressure on him by threatening him with harsh treatment of his family.

The court satisfied his attorney’s demand of the attorney to conduct a medical examine, but instead of a thorough examination, he was only x-rayed, and this only after three months.

The prisoner has not been examined by a state medical expert and in September, 2004, his wife petitioned the Psycho-Rehabilitation Center for Victims of Torture and Violence – “Empatia” – which conducted the examination after first getting permission from representatives of the Medical and Penitentiary Department of the Ministry of Justice. The results of the medical inspection of the victim confirmed the prisoner’s torture and degrading treatment.

The UN Commissioner visited the penitentiaries during his visit to Georgia and saw the conditions of the prisoners. As a result of this monitoring, he made a list of the tortured prisoners, D.M being among them. Commissioner stated he is going to bring the list of the tortured prisoners to the UN Commission session for discussion.

When D.M changed his confession, he stated in his new testimony stated that he had confessed under physical and psychological pressure by the law enforcers and he denied as well the Nemsitsveradzes’ participation in the crime. According to K. M., the prisoner’s wife P. Balakhashvili, the Chief investigator of the Prosecutor’s Office and Inga Arkhamia, the attorney of the MP, Kakha Giuashvili contacted her and proposed that her husband should stick with the first testimony he gave, in which the Nemsitsveradze brothers are said to have ordered the murder. K. M. was offered quite a large sum of money if her husband did that.

Kakha Giuashvili, one of the founders of the “Intellect Bank,” MP and Mikheil and Valeri Nemsitsveradze had had business relations for several years. Their relations got tense after internal audit of the main office revealed losses and the MP laid the blame on the Nemsitsveradzes.

After that K. M. applied to the General Inspection of the General Prosecutor’s Office; the application included the conclusion of the medical examiner and a decision not to launch a criminal case was made by the General Prosecutor’s Office. Ultimately, the Supreme Court made a determination to launch a criminal case and on February 24, 2005, a criminal suit was brought against Davit Kekua, Tsikhradze and Dvalishvili, persons suspected of D.M’s torture. The case is now under investigation.

How will the investigation be conducted and what hopes can the society have with such a shameful police force? Despite the fact that a new government has come into power which started large-scale reforms in every institution in the hopes of building a democratic state, promoting the development of civil society and strengthening security, defending human rights and caring for the welfare of the population—despite this, after a year and a half in power, there is no progress with regard to human rights. Unfortunately the post-revolutionary government still actively employs completely unacceptable soviet methods of investigation which result in people becoming victims of violations, injustice and illegality.