Categories
Journalistic Survey
Articles
Reportage
Analitic
Photo Reportage
Exclusive
Interview
Foreign Media about Georgia
Editorial
Position
Reader's opinion
Blog
Themes
Children's Rights
Women's Rights
Justice
Refugees/IDPs
Minorities
Media
Army
Health
Corruption
Elections
Education
Penitentiary
Religion
Others

’Hope’ Does not Exist Anymore!

October 1, 2006

The head of Humanitarian Organization is Trialed for HelpingChechen Refugees

On the 6th October 2005, Chechen refugee Mahomed Mahaev applied to the ’Human Rights Information and Documentation centre’ defining that the Georgian General Prosecutor’s Office had launched the preliminary investigation against his Humanitarian Organization ’Imedi’ activities and asked for help. 

Since 6th October 2005, ‘Human Rights Information and Documentation Centre’ has been involved in this case and it found out that Criminal Proceeding’s Special Service for Legalization the Illicit Revenues within the Georgian General Prosecutor’s Office was investigating the fact -‘Criminal Case #74058041 on the fact of legalization the illicit revenues of number of Chechen citizens in 2003-2004 (the crime is envisaged within the Georgian Criminal Code Article 194-II-‘c’ item).

Mahomad Mahaev explained to the centre that on the 8th April 2003, he and his friends together with other Chechen refugees founded the Humanitarian Organization ‘Imedi’

The Humanitarian Organization was implementing some charity activities for years. More precisely in Georgia, Pankisi Gorge, where Chechen refugees from Chechen Republic within Russian Federation are tensely living; they used to supply them with products, wood for winter, fuel and also they aided those 86 orphan children  with school items and cloths whose parents died during the war in Chechnya. 
The funds to the Humanitarian Organization ’Imedi’ are apportioned from different International Humanitarian Organizations as grants.
 
The materials sent by the Georgian Financial Monitoring caused the preliminary investigation against ’Imedi’. (the case deals with the 1 500USD transfered to Turkey by Mahomad Mahaev-this money was transferred to his son in Turkey).

View: http://www.fms.gov.ge/

During the preliminary investigation all documents on book-keeping and computer processors were withdrawn from the office of the Humanitarian Organization ‘Imedi’. The aforementioned investigation made governing board of the association to cancel all charity activities planned by them.

Criminal Proceeding’s Special Service for Legalization the Illicit Revenues within the Georgian General Prosecutor’s Office launched preliminary investigation against the Humanitarian Organization ‘Imedi’ (criminal case #74058041). (The crime envisaged by the Georgian Criminal Code Article194-II-‘c’item).

On the 27th December 2005, the criminal proceeding was launched on this case and the head of the Humanitarian Organization ‘Imedi’, Mahomad Mahaev was detained as an accused. (the crime envisaged by the Georgian Criminal Code Article 220, Article 362-II-‘a’,’b’ items and Article 182-II-‘a’,’b’,’c’ items and –III-‘b’ item).

Mahomed Mahaev was charged for using fraud documents while being a president for the Charity Association ‘Imedi’ in 2003-2004 and appropriated 137 325 GEL together with the accountant of this association, N. Ebanoidze. This money belonged to the association. (There are no applications about


appropriating the money neither from the constituents of the association nor from the donor organizations and the people who were aided by them).

For example neither beneficiaries nor the people who were aided by them were interrogated during the investigation what is illegal in this category case.

During the preliminary investigation the prosecutor’s office was trying to gravity the charge without any bases and initially they were defining that the Humanitarian Organization ‘Imedi’ dealt with the organizations which were connected with the terrorist organizations within ‘Taliban’ and ‘Al-Qaida’ network. Everything was absurd.

Besides that we have to point out that the Humanitarian organization cooperated with charity organizations whose activities covered nearly all conflict zones-Afghani, Bosnia, Iraqi, Ethiopia, Pakistan, Palestine and etc.

More precisely the investigation insisted that the International Humanitarian Organizations Muslim Helfen E.V. and Muslim Hands  (Humanitarian Organization ‘Imedi’ cooperates with them) deal with suspicious legal entities GLOBAL RELIEF FOUNDATION and INTERPAL (A.K.A PRDF)- connected with ‘Al-Qaeda’ and ‘Taliban’.

Muslim Helfen E.V. (Germany) and Muslim Hands (Great Britain) are implementing the humanitarian aid projects with the support cooperation of the ‘Red Cross’ and ‘Red Half-moon’

The investigation on the case is conducted through violation the Investigating Subordination for according to the Georgian Criminal Code Article 62 the cases of this category are in the competence of the Financial Police. Despite that the investigation was conducted by the aforementioned prosecutor’s office through violating the Georgian Criminal Code Article 62, 61.

The resolution on criminal accusation and the verdict were passed without translating the main part of the documents in the case in Georgian thus through violating the Georgian Criminal Code Article 17-VI.

The rights of the accused Mahaev were crudely violated for he was not handed the copies of the procedural documents translated in his native language, what is obligatory. Even the verdict is enough to prove the violation of the Georgian Criminal Code Article 17-III. As for the accuser’s statement at the preliminary hearing, he said that it was not necessary to translate the verdict. It proves that the preliminary investigation was far from the minimal standards of the European Convention on Human Rights and Protection of the Principal Independence. (Article 6-III).

Aforementioned rough procedural violations can be crowned with the fact that no organizations and people being damaged by the activities of M.Mahaev and N. Ebanoidze are mentioned in the case.  

The violations made during the preliminary investigation were so large-scaled that it was impossible to eradicate them during the court investigation.


The mistakes made during the investigation were neither mentioned nor fixed at the trial, even those which could be eradicated.

For example, the materials were translated neither in Georgian nor in the familiar-to-the-accused language at the court either. The trial did not discuss the facts what were particularly important, for the most of the documents in the criminal case are either in Russian or in English languages. These materials are certainly important to find M.Mahaev and N. Ebanoidze not guilty.

Poor health conditions of the accused Mahomed Mahaev must be taken into consideration together with his and his family juridical status (his wife and seven children, three of them are under age are refugees in Georgia).

International Organization ‘Observatory’ has already spread the urgent appeal about Mahaev’s case and called both Georgian Government and the Non-governmental Organizations to elaborate the case.

‘Human Rights Information and Documentation Centre” expresses its concern about the violations in Mahaev’s case and considers it to be a chartered one to discriminate Chechen refugees in Georgia and to seize them of all allowances. ‘Human Rights Information and Documentation Centre’ calls the international organizations on showing interest in Mahomed Mahaev’s case.

News