Davit Roketishvili: “I am Harassed by the Chief of the Borjomi Internal Ministry Department”

Series of problems for Dato Roketishvili, Borjomi resident, has started since a policeman raped a little girl. Roketishvili speaks about the harassment he endures from the chief and officers from the Borjomi Internal Ministry Department. 

First Story

On October 6, 2006 Vano Talakhadze, inspector for the Borjomi Criminal Police Department, forcibly and under the threat raped his neighbor, nineteen-year-old Luba Ghonghadze. Talakhadze is a cousin of Mamuka Khvedeliani, the Chief of the Borjomi Internal Ministry Department. The mother of the victim claimed that the cousin protects the offender.

Second Story

 The fact of raping the orphan girl made the society furious. The local people demanded to punish Talakhadze and Roketishvili was among them. He said that the policemen started to persecute him since that fact. “Mamuka Khvedeliani got irritated at seeing me too active regarding the incident,” said he.

“People like you should not work in police as well as your cousin,” Roketishvili said to Talakhadze. So, the hostility originated from that argument.

Third Story or the First Phase of Persecution, November 4, 2006

A man in civil form demanded documents from Roketishvili who was standing in front of the Borjomi Municipality building.

“I asked him who he was. At that moment, policeman Paata Bitsadze got out of the car standing nearby. I know him and asked me to produce technical passport of my car. I did not have the document with me. I live two hundred meters away from the scene. I told Bitsadze I could get the passport in a few minutes and got into my car to start off. Bitsadze pulled the key out of my car and the other policemen tried to make me sit into the car forcibly,” said Roketishvili. 

On the same day the policemen took Roketishvili to the police station. He was seized the car documents, and checked him for drunkenness and narcotics. Though he was sober, the chief the Samtskhe-Javakheti Division of the Shida Kartli Patrol Police Main Department made a resolution on depriving Davit Roketishvili from the license of driving a car within three years.

On February 13 2007, Neli Ghonghadze, the judge of the Akhaltsikhe District Court, did not satisfy the appeal of the Samtskhe-Javakheti Patrol Police Department against Roketishvili and re-granted later with the license.

Fourth Story or the Second Phase of Persecution, January 29 2007

Officials from the Borjomi Internal Ministry Department checked Roketishvili on drug abusing once more. The examination showed he was not a drug abuser.

Mamuka Khvedeliani gave a curious comment to the journalist for Human Rights Center regarding the situation.

“Dato Roketishvili was checked on drugs on the basis of operative information. Everybody knows in the town that this person is smoking marihuana,” said Khvedeliani.

“All my problems have originated from Khvedeliani. He knows I am not a drug abuse and he has not other reason to detain me. At first his cousin raped that poor girl and nobody punished him for the crime. It is ridiculous that the police is trying to detain me and not that criminal,” said Roketishvili.

Khvedeliani said, “As for my cousin, Vano Talakhadze, I was ready to punish him and fired him from the police too.”

However, as we have found out, Talakhadze was dismissed from his position on the basis of personal statement.

Roketishvili recalls the exact example of threatening. “Khvedeliani threatened me he would drink my Jewish blood and would not stop until he detains me,” he said.

Khvedeliani denied the accusations against him: “Roketishvili’s accusations against me are absurd. I do not have any personal arguments with him.”

Maghradze, lawyer of Roketishvili, said that his client is persecuted and his rights are violated.

“When you do not commit any crime and the police carry out narcological examination on you several times for no reason, you are really persecuted,” said the lawyer.

Davit Roketishvili speaks about the danger he faces. “Tomorrow they might plant something on me and then it would be easy to detain me. My relatives warned me not to give a lift to a stranger, somebody might leave something in my car that could encourage the police to detain me,” said Roketishvili.