Policemen Abuse Their Power

On the 27th of August at 6.00 p.m., Shida Kartli regional policemen wounded 25-year-old Mirza Besiashvili during a special operation in the village of Zerti, in the Gori district. At the time of the incident the man’s family was also at home. About 30 masked policemen entered the Besiashvilis’ family home, guns blazing. According to police information, Mirza Besiashvili has been blamed for many crimes.

Lali Okruashvili-Besiashvili (the man’s mother) recalls: “It was 6 p.m. We all were at home. Suddenly armed men rushed into the yard. They said they were police and we would find out the reason for their visit later. The children and neighbors were terrified. The policemen were cocking their automatic weapons, saying they were going to search the house. At that time my son woke up and rushed out onto the veranda shouting ‘what is going on?’ They began to shoot, wounding him in his foot. Mirza fell to his knees, put his hands up and shouted ‘don’t shoot me I’m not armed’. His wounds were already bleeding. One of the policemen shot him again, wounding him in the hand. He was in pain, got up and ran into the garden crying ‘they are killing me’. The policemen followed him, saying ‘we wounded him, but he is still running - we bravely wounded him.’ My second son arrived at that moment. The policemen saw him and fired at him too, as they look very alike. A neighbor woman covered my second son and shouted not to shoot him. They put my wounded boy into a car and took him to hospital”

The wounded man was taken to Gori regional hospital. The doctor on duty was Avto……, who said to the relatives of the wounded man and the policemen that the young man was in poor shape and must be promptly taken to the Main State Hospital, in the capital. The policemen did not pay any attention to his advice. Davit Bukhradze, head of the police department brought in another doctor from the same hospital, who was his friend. The doctor just put a drip in him, bandaged his wounds and left for home. 

Zaira Besiashvili (the aunt of the wounded man) recalls: “Our wounded boy was in the hospital for two days and nobody paid any attention to him. No doctors looked after him. The doctor on duty said that he would not touch him. The doctor the policemen had brought in first came, bandaged his wounds, and went away. The boy was to be transported to the [other] hospital. A paramedic’s ambulance was called from the Main State Hospital the next day at 12.00 p.m. The policemen demanded the doctor write a document proving that the patient was in a poor condition. We found out their doctor was having a party somewhere. He wrote that our wounded boy was to be promptly taken to the hospital, but in the evening neither the investigators nor the others were seen. The police chief did not appear at all”.
The ambulance, having arrived in Gori on the 28th August, was paid ten laris an hour by the family of the wounded. The ambulance was waiting for them for a day and half. On the 29th of August, prosecutors and investigators came to the hospital to charge the wounded man. He was accused of robbery. Mirza Besiashvili’s detention is related to events surrounding a murder in 2004. On the 21st September 2004, in the village of Zerti, on a holiday, a certain person from the village of Tsitsagiaantkari, who was a guest in Zerti, fired upon a place where villagers use to gather, killing one juvenile and wounding another local inhabitant. Mirza Besiashvili was a relative of the murdered child. He went to Zerti to the murderer’s family. He told the family members of the accused that he would not leave their house until the murderer showed himself. 25-year-old Mirza Besiashvili was detained according to the testimony of the family.  They said that he attacked their family and restricted their freedom. The man accused of murdering the child is also currently detained.

Zura Sazaglishvili (the Gori district Deputy Prosecutor) states - “The detainee was charged and the judge had sentenced him to preliminary detention. At this stage we have sent him to jail and they will decide there which hospital he should be taken to. It is up to them. As for the facts regarding the abuse of power by policemen, it must be investigated. I want to point out that no policemen were injured. Whilst I have no right to state whether it was necessary for the policemen to use guns or not, the investigation will find out everything.”

Saba Tsitsikashvili, Gori