Family Requests Protection of their Rights Because of the Death of A Soldier

Maka Malakmadze, Batumi

On August 9, 2008 soldier Levan Ananidze was wounded in the right leg by a shell splinter.. After medical assistance he returned home on sick-leave. Later, on September 15, 2008 he died while swimming in the sea. According to the death certificate, the reason for his death was undetermined. In this circumstance, the family should get insurance for the death of the soldier. The family has not received the sum yet because an investigation started on whether he was a suicide.

“My son could not have committed suicide. He was getting ready to return to his military unit. He was on sick-leave and was supposed to go back in two days,” said Margo Kulejishvili, mother of the dead soldier. “One day before his death he told me he wanted to see relatives and visited all the neighbors. Then he went to the park together with his relatives and friends. In the park they decided to go swimming. As soon as the wave hit him, he sank. When the wound felt cold water he could not fight the waves. He cried for help but since it was dark, nobody saw him… sometimes he used to say that the wounded leg strained and he could not move.” The rescue team found the body of Ananidze the next day. According to the rescue team he was found 16-17 meters away from the shore on the seabed.

Levan Ananidze was a contractor in military service. On September 1, 2007 he was appointed as a bomber in the infantry of the Ministry of Defense. On August 9, 2008 he was put in Hospital N 5 for ten days. The diagnosis was a wound from a shell splinter. After the medical treatment he was sent to Kobuleti on sick leave.

The flat of the Ananidzes’ three-member family is a cooperative. The family is on the list of socially disabled people. The family does not have any other income and they rely on their social allowance. “Levani kept the family. He bought a TV Set and other stuff. We have not paid loan since his death. Nobody has called either. Now, we rely on the social assistance. Soon, the anniversary of Levani’s death will be and we have not done the grave yet,” complained the mother of the soldier.

The family demands the insurance sum for the death of their son. The Human Rights Center tried in vain to get in touch with the press center of the Insurance Company “IC Group”.

The Information Analytic department of the Ministry of Defense of Georgia stated that if investigation concludes that the soldier did not commit suicide the family will get the compensation.

The Prosecutor’s office of the Adjara Autonomous Republic reported that the investigation was initiated under the article of compulsion to suicide. 

The body of the dead soldier was exhumed one month after death. The results of the examination by an expert are not known to the family yet.”

“ The cause of death cannot be found out. They excluded all possibility of alcohol poisoning because there was no alcohol in the body. We were not provided with the copy of the expert’s opinion because the case is still being investigated. Everybody suggests that I give up appealing because I might share the fate of Sandro Girgvliani’s family (a young man was killed by high-ranking officials close to Tbilisi and his mother died about two years after his death) but we still demand the sum of insurance at least to do the grave for my son. He was fighting for the country during the war in August, 2008,” said Otar Ananidze, the father.