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The Administration of the Shopping Center “Batumi” Was Evicted Before the Time Specified in its Warning

July 8, 2009

Maka Malakmadze, Batumi

On June 6 the administration of the Shopping Center “Batumi” was warned to leave the office within 5 days. However, on June 7, at 5:00 pm, law enforcement officers by force compelled them to leave the office.

“We received the warning yesterday and according to the warning document we could leave the office within 5 days. However, today they came here and evicted us from the office. We had five-day to appeal against their decision but they did not wait for it. Our eviction is illegal and we will appeal against it,” said Levan Mamuladze, lawyer for the Shopping Center “Batumi.”

Officers from the Main Department of the MIA and Constitutional Security Department took part in the eviction process alongside the local policemen. Ramaz Gvarjaladze, deputy head of the Main Department of the MIA, was present too. They arrived in the office of the shopping center at 5:00 pm.

“I was making copies of some documents on the Xerox when several people broke into the office. They ordered me to leave the room. They asked me whether the director was in the office. Then I went downstairs and do not know anything else,” said an employee of the shopping center.

The shopping center has two stories. Several rooms of the administration were closed and law enforcement officers broke into it and took equipment.

The new owner of the shopping center “Batumi”, who also was the director of the “Shopping Center 2009, Ltd” Abesalom Gurgenidze, was watching the eviction process. The Batume shopping center had been sold to him several days ago pursuant to the decision of the Ministry of Finances and Economics. “I did not apply to anybody to evict these people from here. Apparently, the Ministry of Finances and Economics requested their eviction. In fact, since June 25 I am the director of this shopping center but have not started working yet. We will start when the entity is sold to us.”

The Head of the Department for the Enterprise Management and Agreement Monitoring within the Ministry of Finances and Economics Tengiz Tsintsadze also attended the eviction process. He also said that the ministry had not applied to the law enforcement structures to evict traders.

Traders also watched the eviction process. They requested a guarantee to protect their goods. Ramaz Gvarjaladze convinced them that nothing would be damaged.

Law enforcement officers also prevented journalists from performing their professional activities. The police had blocked the surrounding territory and journalists did not have the right to cross the barrier. The reason was security of people.

The shopping center was sequestered in 2007 by the Batumi City Court. Different courts still continue discussion of the argument between the old owners of the space and the government. A criminal case was initiated against two owners of the shopping center, Ilia Ananidze and Joni Zoidze. The Batumi City Court sent Ananidze to prison for 9 years for appropriating 304,459 GEL and Zoidze was sentenced to 5-years in prison.

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