20 Thousand Dollars Demanded from Kakhi Kaladze’s Father in Return for Information

20 Thousand Dollars Demanded from Kakhi Kaladze’s Father in Return for Information

An operation to set free the kidnapped Levan Kaladze has recently been planned with members of his family and the investigation group itself still hoping to find him alive. One of the operations was held on 29 March as a result of a telephone call that took place two days earlier.  As resported, an unidentified person telephoned Karlo Kaladze and told the family that he had credible information about location of Levan Kaladze. In order to get more detailed information about this, Karlo Kaladze was asked to pick up a letter that he could find near the Griboedov monument located on Mtskheta Road. In the letter the informers were requesting USD20 thousand dollars for the exchange of information with Kaladze instructed to leave a letter on the opposite side of the railway platform of the village of Mokhisi in the Kareli region telling the informant whether or not he would agree.

Kaladze contacted police and the special operation was planned wherein Iuri Nozadze and Giorgi Gongladze were detained on suspicion but who did not have any information about the location of Levan Kaladze. Their aim was only to extort money. The investigation also made showed that Giorgi Gongladze, who is simply a relative of Iuri Nozadze and quite accidentally came to be at the crime scene, had nothing to do with the crime whatsoever.

Iuri Nozadze pointed out in his evidence given to the inquest that he did not inform Giorgi Gongladze of his own intention and only deceived him into accompanying himself. The inquest, however, did not take this circumstance into account and charged him for swindling.  It was further reported that the inquest erred in making the charge, confusing swindling for extortion when, in fact, it was the latter that should have been charged. In this special case the crime would have been considered to be committed only after the victim, Karlo Kaladze, had paid the sum they were demanding. As a result the action must be qualified as a violation of Articles 18-19 of the Georgian Criminal Code and not as a committed felony.

Dimitri Khachidze, the attorney for the accused, considers that Gongladze was arrested with massive violations with Gongoladze arrested without due explanation or description in the arrest protocol. As for other evidence listed in the arrest protocol, it is incomprehensible to see which details the inquest based its arrest on because none of the evidence indicates that the above-mentioned crime was committed by Giorgi Gongladze. On the contrary, a graphic expertise has been conducted by the preliminary investigation which concluded that the letter was written not by Gongladze but by Iuri Nozadze.

A last puzzling feature of the investigation is that Giorgi Gongladze, who had no idea of Nozadze’s plans, is today in prison whilst Iuri Nozadze, who does not deny that he directly planned and committed the crime, is free. It is interesting to know why the investigation needs illegal prisoners when the situation is as clear as day.

Dimitri Khachidze