Nona Suvariani, Tbilisi
Despite all the many reforms implemented by Georgian government the court system is still in the habit of passing unfair decisions. Nino Zuriashvil’s journalistic investigation of how the court system does not apply equal justice shows just how bad this issue is for Georgian society, as it was represented at Cinema House on April 4.
The journalistic investigation was carried regarding a criminal case where three persons were arrested in 2006 back in 2006, Cheliagele, Racha region. Zura, Zaza and Isidore Dalakishvilis were convicted and sentenced to six, twenty one and twenty six years of imprisonment.
Nino Zuriashvili: “We tried to carry out the journalistic investigation according to standards. We exposed all factors that were or were not considered by the court. We tried to expose arguments of sides, the defendant’s as well as the accuser’s.
Nino Zuriashvili added that she had encountered various problems while working. “The difficulty was the fact that I had to retell the stories of three accused and all three stories had two versions, and one of which supported by the prosecutor and another by the defendant. Thanks to God it was period when we were allowed to attend the trails and I personally recorded the court hearings.”
“I do not assess the situation I just provide the materials, positions and arguments. Besides that the Ombudsman’s Office has learned the case and we have included their assessments in the investigation.”
The film is about the murder that happened in the village of Cheliaghele in Amblorauli District in 2006. Three young men were arrested for the crime. The widow of Niko Chelidze who was murdered recalls that masked robbers attacked them at that night. She cannot claim who the criminals were. However, she is sure that Dalakishvilis’s are the murderers.
Zura, Zaza and Isidore Dalakishvilis claim they are not guilty. In exchange for reaching a plea-bargain, Zura Dalakishvili pleaded guilty and in turn accused Zaza and Isidore too. Consequently, he was released and in the freedom he found out that they were innocent and brought about appeal suit to the court. The result that he was requested to annul the plea bargain, and as he explained: “Officials from the Police Department and Prosecutor’s Office psychologically pressured and threatened me. They forced me to make a testimony they wanted in exchange of my freedom. Otherwise they threatened me with nine-year term of imprisonment.”
The policemen, who attended the process when the prisoners were making testimonies, claim the opposite and say that the accused actually pleaded guilty to the crime.
The evidence against the accused according to the Prosecutor’s Office is blood stain on the trousers of one of Dalakishvilis. The blood stain belongs to the murdered man. However, the wife of the accused has similar group of blood as the killed man. The lawyers of the accused point out that the judge and the prosecutor was eager to find Dalakishvilis guilty. They failed to satisfy the request of the lawyers to carry out a complete blood test. The investigation crew visited the people who met the accused men at the night of accident; though the prosecutor claims that these people were in the house of the murdered man. The witnesses will give the same testimonies to the court if invited. However the judge and the prosecutor did not bother to call these people to the trial to testify.
Evidence against the convicted people is the testimony of seven-year-old child of the murdered man who said that the murderer had blue eyes. One of the prisoners really has blue eyes; however, it is not a valid proof against him in itself.
A full discussion of the case was never made. Nino Zuriashvili said that since the “TV Companies refused to cooperate with her” she did not want to provide her investigative material. However the increased interest challenged her and the “Monitor” will continue to represent its investigations to the public in future until similar materials will be shown by TV Stations.
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