Head of Military Police Threatens Representative of the Human Rights Centre

Head of Military Police Threatens Representative of the Human Rights Centre

Bondo Kutsinashvili, the head of the Military Police in the village of Kurta (in the Didi Liakhvi region) threatened to murder a representative of the Human Rights Centre, Saba Tsitsikashvili.

Bondo Kutsinashvili was angered by an article entitled; “Military Police Presence Strengthens in the Gorge”, published by Tsitsikashvili in the “Akhali Versia” newspaper. According to the article, the Ministry of Defence and the head of the Military Police, Aleko Sukhitashvili, are building a new office block for the Military Police in the Didi Liakhvi region. The head of the Police Department of the village of Kurta Bondo Kutsinashvili was also appointed to the position of Chief of Military Police. ‘People working with Sukhitashvili in the regional police department are quite often appointed to high positions. Those are the very people, who have made smuggling and drug dealing common in Shida Kartli’, says the newspaper.

On the 13th of February, Bondo Kutsinashvili called Tsitsikashvili and threatened to murder him. Tsitsikashvili received an ‘anonymous’ phone call from Kutsinashvili, upon entering the press room of the Regional Police Department. He screamed down the phone at the journalist and said that he would kill him and chop him into little pieces. Kutsinashvili repeated the same threat to the head of the press-centre, Eter Sadaghashvili, to whom Tsitsikashvili had handed the phone. Sadaghashvili recognized the voice of Kutsinashvili. The head of Military Police called Tsitsikashvili for a third time; this time Tamar Okruashvili, a journalist from the “Khalkhis Gazeti” news-paper, answered the call. The voice said: “Advise Tsitsikashvili to stop publishing such materials about me!”

“I recognized Kutsinashvili as soon as he said: what are you publishing in the papers?! I will cut off your head and bury you alive! Who is a smuggler and drug dealer? It was obvious that he had not even read the article and had received some wrong information about it. I demand an immediate response about this from the head of Military Police, Aleko Sukhitashvili”, declared Saba Tsitsikashvili.

Saba Tsitsikashvili from Gori