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Next Boisterous Report of Public Defender

April 27, 2007

subarib.gifGeorgian Public Defender represented his 2006 report to the Human Rights Committee of the Georgian Parliament. His report revealed human rights violation in Georgia. Prosecutor’s Office, Court and the Ministry of Internal Affairs are the institutions that mostly harass human rights in Georgia and occupy the first places in the list of violators.

Presentation of Sozar Subari’s report lasted two days. On the first day it dealt with law enforcement bodies. Mothers of Sandro Girgvliani, murdered in Okrokana, of Amiran Robakidze, murdered in 2004 and of Davit Sakvarelidze, murdered in 2003 during the night of Rose Revolution, attended the session in the Parliament.

Before session started, Elene Tevdoradze, the chairwoman of the Human Rights Committee of the Parliament, asked the listeners not to interrupt Subari, though the report would not be easy to listen to. “Public Defender must be radical and if he fails to be, we would blame him for that. His report might annoy many people; however, public defender’s statements must be severe.”

Subari’s report dealt with the Judiciary System, Prosecutor’s Office, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Army, and Penitentiary Department, and Financial Police, protection of the rights on Labor and on Private Property.  He said that throughout 2006 their office received nearly 3 500 appeals of Georgian citizens regarding various violations. The number is twice as much as the statistics in 2005. Subari stated that Defense Ministry was one of the fields where his representatives had problems during their activities. “They did not allow us to carry out monitoring in guardhouses. It turned out to be more difficult to work in this institution than in others. We could not get any information either. There are two categories of soldiers: soldiers with rights and soldiers with many privileges. I have petitioned to the Minister several times.”
 
Public Defender discussed the Penitentiary System having finished his speech about the Defense Ministry. He said that the conditions in cells can be qualified as torture. “Worse is the situation in pre-trial detention settings. If we lower the liability age to 12 year, it is easy to imagine what conditions the juveniles would have to be in.”

After a general discussion, Ombudsman mentioned the murders of those people whose names are very familiar to society. More precisely:

1. He spoke about nineteen-year-old Amiran Robakidze, murdered in 2004 and said that the investigation on the murder has not finished. “Everybody knows that evidences were falsified in this case. Murdered Amiran Robakidze was planted on a gun in order to protect murderers. In this case it is rather important to charge high ranking officials from the Internal Ministry than detention of the patrol policeman who claims that he accidentally fired at the boy. There are a lot of evidences that prove that those officials falsified documents, though they still maintain their high positions.”

2. He discussed Davit Sakvarelidze’s case, who was murdered on November 22, 2003, at the night of Rose Revolution. He died in a car-accident when his car was crashed by a tank.
“Several expertise examinations have been carried out regarding this case and they proved that the tank crashed the car. However, they closed the investigation without making any conclusions; after we involved the situation, the investigation was renewed,” said Subari.

The next topic of his report was Just Judicial System. Public Defender stated that the independence of the court is very meager. One of the stark examples of the situation is the trial on Sandro Girgvliani’s murder. “The trial was really a precedent. The court hearing of such a prominent and huge case finished within nine days and the mediation of victim side was not satisfied. If mediation had been satisfied, it could have revealed the truth regarding the participation of famous people in the case (such as Tako Merabishvili, wife of the Internal Minister, Guram Donadze, the chief of the Press-Service Office of the Internal Ministry, Data Akhalaia, a high ranking official from the same Ministry and employees of the Ministry, Vasil Sanodze and Melnikov). In this case prosecutor and defense side was represented with one party. Any mediation of the prosecutor was supported by the defendant.”

As for the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Subari stated that in 2006 incorrect usage of gun by policemen is still very problematic in the country and it resulted into the death of eighteen people last year. Public Defender discussed the fact of planting drugs and gun on detainees. “Planting drugs and guns on detainees is still problem. However, it is rather difficult to protect your rights now than it was before. We have discussed a range of similar cases in which there are some serious doubts regarding the accusations. One of similar facts happened on March 3 when a person who was planted on a drug turned out to be a brother of the chief of the Bailiff’s Department within the Penitentiary System and those policemen who detained him were arrested. In this particular case, the influence of the brother assisted the detainee.”

In his report Ombudsman condemned facts of violation the rights on private property, as well as poor social conditions of the population and problems of IDPs and refuges.

Members of the Parliamentary majority did not attend the presentation of the Public Defender’s report. Only the chairman of the Human Rights Committee and her two deputies attended the session. As for parliamentary or non-parliamentary opposition, their number was quite significant among listeners; they appreciated the report. Tevdoradze said that Public Defender’s report is fair as it has always been.

Manana Nachkhebia, (Rights Opposition): “The part of the report that the Public Defender has represented is too strict in regarding to the government. We agree with him in every aspect. He has not exaggerated anything. It is the reality that exists in our country. We have no questions to the Public Defender. We want to ask questions to the government-why they keep silence.”

Nazi Aronia, representative of the Majority, stated that the Public Defender very often makes statements in favor of the opposition. “Current report as well as the previous one includes quite a lot of critical estimations of the situation. Very often I have feeling that Subari mixes up human rights protection with political statements. Very often his expressions coincide with the ones of the opposition. He should not make political statements.”

Having listened to the report, mothers of the dead people demanded the right to ask questions. However, Tevdoradze did not let them to and it caused an argument in the hall. The situation resulted into canceling the session. Later on the MPs moved to the Human Rights Committee to listen to the report to the end. The mothers stated that they cannot walk in shame for a long time and would revenge the murderers of their sons.

Eka Gulua

 

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