Court VS Honor and Dignity of Soldier

Natia Imerlishvili
Nino Gudavadze
Lana Bliadze

On November 6, 2008 Gori district court signed plea-bargain with two soldiers who were accused for deserting the army during war operations in August 2008. According to the bargain, initial charge of the soldiers-deserting-was changed into disobedience.  The attorneys of the accused people requested plea-bargain. They considered it was the shortest way to gain freedom for detainees in the expectation of the Presidential mercy. On December 17, 2008, on St. Barbare’s Day, soldiers were really pardoned and released. Everybody should have been pleased with the result but pardoned soldiers, Zurab Khorbaladze and Giorgi Meskhi are sure that impartial court should have estimated their innocence. However, the lawyers could not give them guarantee for similar decision and the accused people had to accept status of a guilty and get freedom at the expense of soldier’s honor and dignity. Whilst, they expected the court to protect their dignity.

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Everything started since investigation united two different crimes and started working on them. Investigation premeditatedly acted in this way in order to qualify the crime as an organized crime. The court did not focus on the fact that attorneys could not protect the rights of the accused people during preliminary investigation. None of their mediations were satisfied. The investigation did not consider the protest of attorneys on artificial unification of the cases while the charges on Khorbaladze and Meskhi were completely different; anybody can see the difference after having studied it.

Zurab Khorbaladze, head of section of theinfantry section # 2 within the Infantry Battalion # 42, was charged for his arrival in Gori from Tskhinvali together with one part of disorganized army after intensive bombardment of Tskhinvali on August 9m 2008. Another part of retreated army (which later was joined by Merab Kikabidze, commander of battalion) deployed in the village of Variani in Gori district. Zurab Khorbaladze was accused for not having implemented the order of Kikabidze on time and had not led the unit to Variani at the fixed time.

Lieutenant Giorgi Meskhi, another soldier of the same battalion, was charged for late arriving in Variani where his unit was deployed; in addition to that he was blamed for willful abandoning the permanent place of dislocation of his battalion in Vaziani after the war finished.

It is quite obvious from the first sight that activities for what soldiers are blamed are not equal.

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After the preliminary investigation the case was sent to the court. It happened on September 11, 2008. The trail (plea-bargain) was held on November 6, 2008. Supreme body of the judiciary system had almost two months to study the case. After that time the court did not change anything in the charge suggested by the investigation and considered the activities of both soldiers illegal. But, the court did not agree the investigation with the qualification of the crime and considered the activities could not be qualified as deserting, but it was disobedience and sentenced both soldiers to three years imprisonment and imposed compensation.

It is still unclear why the court considered the preliminary investigation as complete and impartial while witnesses were not interrogated during the preliminary investigation; the mediations of attorneys on interrogating witnesses were not satisfied. The witnesses wanted to make testimonies that were quite different from other statements. As for the testimonies of witnesses, who were taken to the court by the preliminary investigation, did not indicate to any action that could obviously demonstrate the crime committed by Zurab Khorbaladze and Giorgi Meskhi.

Zurab Khorbaladze was born on December 23, 1985. He served in the Infantry Battalion # 42 within infantry brigade # 4 of the Defense Ministry of Georgia since March 2007. In August of 2008 he participated in the war operations in Gori and Tskhinvali. On August 16 2008 Merab Kikabidze, head of battalion, blamed Khorbaladze for deserting when soldiers were on military formation. Next day, on August 16, based on this charge, military police launched investigation against him. On August 17 officers from the Ministry of Internal Affairs detained him as a suspect. His attorney was Revaz Sisauri.

Giorgi Meskhi was born on March 18, 1985. He served in the Infantry Battalion # 42 within infantry brigade # 4 of the Defense Ministry of Georgia since December 4, 2007. He participated in the war operations in Gori and Tskhinvali in August 2008. Military police launched investigation against him based on the report of Merab Kikvidze. Meskhi was detained on August 17 as a suspect. His attorney was Lasha Avaliani.

Revaz Sisauri, attorney of Khorbaladze, requested interrogation of Mushkudiani and Torchinava, officers from Battalion # 42. Court passed verdict on Zurab Khorbaladze so that did not ask why the investigation had refused to interrogate suggested witnesses. Or what did Mushkudiani and Torchinava want to say to the investigation? Won’t the court change its decision after having heard from Torchinava and Mushkudiani that they personally had witnessed how Zurab Khorbaladze demanded soldiers to go to Variani in order to obey the order of Kikabidze? Khorbaladze had taken the responsibility of the head of unit because most of commanders were either wounded or killed and soldiers were disorganized. Consequently, nobody obeyed his order and what else could Khorbaladze do? Nevertheless, he managed to take soldiers to Variani but a bit late for what he had reasonable excuse. If the court had estimated that testimonies of those witnesses were true how it could charge Zurab Khorbaladze for the crime?

Lasha Avaliani, attorney of Meskhi, requested to interrogate Chilindrishvili, Tsutskiridze, Pukasian and Kapanadze, corporals of the battalion # 42. They could confirm that Giorgi Meskhi had implemented the order of Kikabidze and arrived in Variani on fixed time. One of witnesses could make even more important statement…

Our investigation team has got hold of a secret audio-recording of the conversation of this soldier. The point is that since Khorbaladze and Meskhi are already fired from army, soldiers, who intended to appear to the court as witnesses, now refuse to give interviews to media sources; they do not want to “recall old dirty cases.” Furthermore, they still continue their service in the same battalion and at the court they would have had to oppose their commander. However, there is a secret audio-recording of the conversation of one of them where he states: “I personally took Gio (Giorgi Meskhi) to Variani by my car. Others can also confirm it. I will tell the truth even if they cut all my ten fingers off…Let the investigation call me and I will say it at the court… How can it happen? Our boys are astonished…” Mother and Attorney of Giorgi Meskhi handed this audio recording to the investigation.

Court did not pay attention to the fact that investigation had not paid attention to the second mediation of the attorney of Giorgi Meskhi who requested interrogation of Lieutenant Abashidze.  Lieutenant Abashidze had very important information to share with the court: On August 13, 2008 he discharged Giorgi Meskhi, head of unit, from the responsibilities in permanent dislocation of Vaziani for Battalion # 42. Meskhi had requested him permission to go to the funeral of Devi Chaduneli, a soldier from his unit who was killed during the war. At that moment Abashidze was attending to the duties of the head of HR management department instead of Lieutenant Memanishvili who was killed in Tskhinvali. Thus, where is crime here? Soldiers who were introduced as witnesses by investigation claim that since August 13 they had not seen Meskhi in the battalion for several days. If he, having taken permission according to the law, left the place of dislocation, should he be found guilty? We ask this question to the court.

The court did not pay attention to the fact that the investigation had not clarified how convincing Commander Kikabidze’s suspicions were on deserting of two soldiers. How impartial was Merab Kikabidze? Did not he have motive for personal revenge to his co-warriors? The soldiers could have had important information about disorganized commander of the battalion who fought in Tskhinvali. Attorney demanded to request archives of cell companies to withdraw conversations between the commander of the battalion and Khorbaladze. However, the investigation did not satisfy his request.

Our investigation team has managed to estimate that first over-phone conversation between Khorbaladze and Kikabidze occurred on August 10, 2008. Khorbaladze was initiator of this conversation. The outgoing call is still saved on the mobile-phone of Zurab Khorbaladze. Only after that Kikabidze started to call him. Maybe, officer Khorbaladze had chance to prove his innocence if justice had helped him in it. If court agreed to request phone conversation of August 10 it could demonstrate his innocence. Zurab Khorbaladze claims that he personally requested Kikabidze to assist him to take soldiers to Variani. “I personally asked Kikabdize to send cars to us. I reported to him that most part of the unit had survived and I could ensure their departure to Variani,” If this conversation could prove the innocence of Zurab Khorbaladze then what should court say about it? Why did Khorbaladze call the commander himself if he had intended to desert the army or was not going to obey the order?

The court failed to notice that preliminary investigation could not find anything that could indicate to disobedience of Khorbaladze and Meskhi. Furthermore, testimonies of the witnesses are contradictory in most cases. For example, Amaghlobeli, a soldier who was sent to take Giorgi Meskhi and his unit to Variani, names completely different names and number of soldiers unlike Commander Kikabidze.

We drew up a table to demonstrate the contradictions between the testimonies.

How Many Soldiers Did Amaghlobeli Take to Variani?

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Court left these questions without answers to the society. This is the court which was obliged to estimate the truth about the dignity of soldiers participating in the war. However, what is the truth that cannot persuade person in its existence? The accused soldiers are young men of 24-25 and after the war in August and trial in November 2008 they have learned one truth: Don’t take weapon if it is not given by fair state!

Lia Toklikishvili, leader of journalistic investigation
Investigation was carried out within the project: “Monitoring of Judiciary System in Georgia” implemented by the Human Rights Center and newspaper “Sityva”
Project is supported by “Eurasian Partnership Foundation”