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Investigation Falsified the Signature of World Champion

July 18, 2007

Lawyer Zakaria Butiashvili applied to the Human Rights Center (HRIDC) for help. He protects the rights of twenty-year-old Merab Vardiashvili, a resident of the village of Eniseli in the Kvareli District. The lawyer said that his client was arrested on the basis of falsified documents.

Lawyers for the Human Rights Center studied the criminal case that is due to be discussed at the Kvareli District Court.

Law enforcers detained Merab Vardiashvili on April 20 2007 when he was going through the registration at Tbilisi Airport. Vardiashvili had arrived from Kharkov where he had worked at a commercial enterprise with the support of his relative. He did not know that he was persecuted in Georgia. Law enforcers charged him under the Georgian Criminal Code, Article 178, Sections II and III that envisage twelve-year-imprisonment.

Vardiashvili is accused for having robbed Boris Guliashvili, Police Major and Duty-Inspector of the Internal Ministry’s Nafareuli District Police Department. According to the accusation Vardiashvili assaulted the policeman and seized his mobile phone. Vardiashvili was sentenced to two-month-pretrial-detention on the basis of Internal Ministry’s Kvareli District Department’s investigator, Levan Shariashvili’s warrant on photo-recognition. The warrant stated that, on September 14 2006, in the presence of co-witnesses, Khatia Khakhutashvili and Davit Kevkhishvili, Boris Guliashvili was shown photos to recognize the robber. He pointed at the photo of Merab Vardiashvili. It must be pointed out that Khatia Khakhutashvili is a neighbor of investigator Levan Shariashvili and Davit Kevkhishvili, a resident of the village of Akhalsofeli in the Kvareli District; the latter was Shariashvili’s class-mate. Kevkhishvili is a world champion in Judo. In addition to that, he is a probationer at the Prosecutor General’s Office and soon he is supposed to be a Kakheti Regional Prosecutor.

According to the Georgian Judo Federation, while the investigator was preparing the warrant Davit Kevkhishvili was in Borjomi together with the Georgian combined team where they attended the trainings for the World Championship. Consequently, the investigator falsified the signature of the World Champion. Lawyer Butiashvili said that Kevkhishvili confirmed the fact in his conversation with him. Besides that the Prosecutor’s Office refused to interrogate those witnesses who claimed Merab Vardiashvili was not on the scene during the robbery.

Nobody makes comments on the situation at the Gurjaani District Prosecutor’s Office. Parents of the accused urge human rights organizations for help.

Gela Mtivlishvili, Kakheti

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