”Court Is Oppressed By Prosecutor’s Office”

Gela Mtivlishvili, Kakheti

According to the current legislation, an accused pays the bail to the state budget only after the court passes verdict. According to the Criminal Procedural Code of Georgia the judge is entitled to satisfy the solicitation of an investigator completely or partially; or refuse to satisfy the solicitation at all and release the accused. Despite the estimated rules, prosecutor made the accused to pay the bail before the judge passed verdict.

Officers from Gurjaani district police department arrested Zaza Lazashvili and Giorgi Chakvetadze on July 22, 2009. The prosecutor charged them for hooliganism. According to criminal case materials, Lazashvili and Chakvetadze insulted Nika and Natia Jgharkavas. Investigator Zakaria Kikilashvili appealed to Gurjaani district court on July 24. Investigator had negotiated the issue with prosecutor Giorgi Kokiashvili and requested the court to bail Lazashvili with 5 000 GEL and Chakvetadze with 3 000 GEL.

Mother of the detainee Zaza Lazashvili, Anna Lazashvili paid 5 000 GEL for the criminal case N 023090294 at Gurjaani branch of the People’s Bank on July 24. 3 000 GEL was paid on the same day for Giorgi Chakvetadze as well. The payments can be confirmed by receipts.

According to our information, the parents of the detainees paid the abovementioned bails after having negotiated it with prosecutor Giorgi Kokiashvili. The participants of the negotiation do not speak about details. They do not want to have problems with the prosecutor’s office.

The point is that on July 24 Gurjaani district Prosecutor’ Office cancelled its request to the court to bail Zaza Lazashvili and submitted a new request to the court later. Prosecutor requested imprisonment of Zaza Lazashvili. However, the mother of the detainee had already paid 5 000 GEL as a bail.

Anna Lazashvili said head of the investigation division of the Gurjaani district police department Ilia Otarashvili requested to imprison her son instead bailing. Ilia Otarashvili has personal quarrel with Zaza Lazashvili because of their business activities. “Ilia Otarashvili had Poker Club in the building of hotel in Gurjaani. My son had same business in Gurjaani and Otarashvili considered him to be his business rival. The police official threatened my son several times with creating some problems with him and finally he succeeded,” Anna Lazashvili.

Ilia Otarashvili categorically denies the accusations of the mother and denies his connection with changed solicitation.

Judge at the Gurjaani district court Shalva Mchedlishvili discussed the solicitations of the investigator Zakaria Kikilashvili at 2:10 pm on July 25. He bailed Giorgi Chakvetadze with 5 000 GEL and sent Zaza Lazashvili to two-month pre-trial imprisonment.

Before the resolution was announced, attorney of Lazashvili Noshrevan Kelekhsashvili stated that the detainee had paid 5 000 GEL as a bail but nobody paid attention to his statement.

“Initially, the court was requested to bail detainees but one hour later it was withdrawn and changed into the request of imprisonment. The basis for the second request was probability of committing another crime by Zaza Lazashvili, though he does not have any criminal record. Second reason for the altered request was assumption that the accused might interfere in the investigation or influence witnesses if he is released – it is not right as well. Lazashvili is accused for minor offence and imprisonment is not used for such a charge. He has paid 5 000 GEL as a bail,” said the attorney. The statement of the attorney was written in the court resolution either. Nevertheless, the judge did not inquire why the accused had paid bail before the court decision was released.

In order to find out why prosecutor Giorgi Kokiashvili compelled family members of the detainees to pay bail, we applied to the Gurjaani prosecutor’s office. “We do not know why the families paid bails,” said Giorgi Kokiashvili.

Nino Andriashvili, lawyer: “The bail shall be paid only after the court passes decision. The court makes the decision after assessing financial and family conditions of the accused as well as gravity of the offence. It must also be found out what was the reason for the prosecutor to change the request. Prosecutor is entitled to request more severe forms of punishment if new circumstances of the offence are discovered. Besides that, the principle of equality is also breached in this case since one detainee was bailed and another was arrested for the same crime. This fact demonstrates that the court discusses solicitations only formally and is under influence of the prosecutor’s office.”