Colonel Sentenced to One-Year Imprisonment

Lagodekhi Regional Court judge Nana Chalatashvili has sentenced Besik Zurabishvili, former head of the Border Guard Regional Department #6, to one-year’s imprisonment. The detainee’s lawyer, Nino Agabekova is about to appeal against the Regional Court’s verdict at the Appeal Court. Kakheti based NGOs call Zurabishvili’s detention a travesty.

The Prosecutor’s Office launched the case last year against Besik Zurabishvili, head of the Border Guard Regional Department #6 and officers Aleksandre Macharashvili and Ramaz Tumanidze, under the Articles 333 and 342(I) of the Georgian Criminal Code. Documents showing they abused their power were sent to the Georgian Prosecutor General by the Public Defender’s Office.

Soldiers from Batumi, Vazha Dolidze, Archil Kutaladze, Artur Minasiani and Mirza Kurtskhaladze got in touch with the Ombudsman via Batumi Military Garrison Commandant, Gocha Ninidze, after Besik Zurabishvili sent the Prosecutor’s Office details about the soldiers deserting from the army. After that, the aforementioned soldiers tried to justify their actions, stating that officers had physically assaulted them, threatened to rape them and because of that they went absent without leave.

Despite an absence of proof, the Telavi Regional Court sentenced officers Macharashvili and Turmanidze to preliminary detention. However they were later released because their accusers could not find any evidence during investigation to prove that they had acted violently towards the soldiers; however the case against Besik Zurabishvili was not dropped. 

‘When the soldiers absconded, Batumi Military Garrison Commandant Gocha Ninidze called me several times asking me not to send their cases to the Prosecutor. Regarding this he also wrote to me that he had prolonged the vacation of one of the soldiers, Artur Minasian, as he needed 10-days treatment at the hospital. Ninidze was acting willingly. He promised me the soldiers would return to the unit soon enough, but he did not keep his word. Afterwards he asked me how they could be transferred to the Batumi unit from the Lagodekhi one. I answered that it was within the department’s competence not mine. Besides that, the soldiers themselves informed me that one of the soldiers from Batumi had paid 400USD to be transferred. 3-4 days later Ninidze calls me again saying that the soldiers did not want to serve in Lagodekhi as they had been beaten, assaulted and threatened with placing them on a bottle there, I replied that everything was a lie and no such cases took place there. After that the soldiers were put under the Prosecutor’s supervision, which has become the reason for the subsequent events. I am certainly not guilty. I cannot understand how I can be detained on the basis of Ninidze’s testimony?” says Besik Zurabishvili.

The soldiers, Kutaladze, Dolidze, Minasiani and Kurtskhalidze do not comment on the facts. Neither does Gocha Ninidze speak about it, who has already been interrogated as a witness like Giorgi Bachiashvili, the Kakheti Region Prosecutor. Representatives of Kakheti based Non-Governmental Organizations consider the detention illegal and call the fact a travesty.
 “There is no other evidence apart from Ninidze’s testimony in the case, to prove that a crime was committed by Zurabishvili,” declare staff at the Kakheti branch of the ‘Human Rights Information and Documentation Centre’, “As it is clear Ninidze is an interested party, the Prosecutor should investigate his activities regarding the person whose holiday was prolonged, without any basis - in exchange for some payment.”

Gela Mtivlishvili, Kakheti