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Policemen Were Interrogated At the Trial on Eka Beselia’s Son and Brother

December 7, 2009

Maka Malakmadze, Batumi

Batumi City Court continues discussion of the incident in the café-bar Elza in Batumi. Among 4 accused are Rati Milorava, underage son of Eka Beselia, leader of the political movement “For the United Georgi”, and her brother Sergo Beseliaa. They are accused for hooliganism and resistance to the policemen. The crime is punished by the imprisonment from 4 to 7 years. The incident happened in café-bar Elza in Batumi on August 19.

On December 2, victimized policemen Dato Arveladze and Avtandil Turmanidze were interrogated at the trial. Interrogation of each of them lasted for 4 hours and the trial ended late at 8:00 pm. The victimized policemen left the court room immediately after questioning.

Initially district inspector-investigator Dato Arveladze was interrogated. He has been working at the police since 1996. However, he is not a lawyer by profession. He said he can recall the incident in details; but when the attorneys requested him to speak about one detail, he started to answer their questions by phrases he had learnt by heart in advance and avoided direct answers.

Attorney Lili Gelashvili noticed how the prosecutor Zviad Pkhakadze dictated words to him. The defense side requested to dismiss the prosecutor but the judge did not satisfy their request. Later the attorneys requested to video-record the trial to record similar facts but the judge did not satisfy their motion again. The defense side can only audio-record the trial.

During the interrogation Dato Arveladze confesses that he had not explained the rights to the detainees. The policemen could not explain why they did not draw up the detention protocol which was to be done on the place. Second victim, district inspector-investigator Avtandil Turmanidze justified themselves by the fact that the detainees did not allow them to draw up a protocol on the place. He did not reply to the question of the attorneys why they did not use the time when the detainees were already in the patrol police car.

Avtandil Turmanidze confessed that he was in civil form and without policeman’s ID on the scene of crime. He said he arrived at the place after Dato Arveladze called him and asked for help. However, initially he started to tell the story from the point he had joined the incident “two women were carrying a man whom a man with blue towel hit in the back…”

Why did not he arrest the man with blue towel when he saw him hit the person in the back? The policemen replied to this question that he decided other policemen needed his assistance more.

The victim policemen could not recall the person who was physically assaulted by Sergo Beselia and Rati Milorava.

It turned out that both victims – Dato Arveladze and Avtandil Turmanidze really were on the scene of incident without uniforms which contradicts the Law on Police of Georgia. They explained this violation by implementing operative information. However, nobody clarified at the trial what kind of operative order it was.

Controversial Testimonies

At the previous trial, victim Davit Japaridze said that nobody had assisted him and his wife; he just got rid of the incident. Nevertheless, policeman Dato Arveladze said: “I took them out of the café. Although I was not in the uniform, I told them I was a policeman.”

Avtandil Turmanidze stated Kirvalidze hit Davit Japaridze in the back and then tore his shirt; the latter was in blood. Dato Arveladze said Kirvalidze had not hit Davit Japaridze.

Unlike the testimonies of the victim policemen, the victim Japaridze said at the trial that Sergo Beselia tried to calm down the situation.

Strange Circumstances

Having returned to the police station, Avtandil Turmanidze kept the torn shirt in the drawer of the working table in his office.

After the detainees were taken to the police station, victim Dato Arveladze did not mention in the protocol that besides him and policeman Tengiz Gegidze their colleagues – Avtandil Turmanidze and Midnia Kirchkheli were also injured.

Avtandil Turmanidze saw from the distance of 20-25 meters that a man was knelt down among 30-35 people and all four accused were beating him.

On August 20, during the interrogation policeman Dato Arveladze did not consider himself to be a victim. Only in the middle of October, when investigator initiated to interrogate him, Arveladze found out that he was victim.

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