Court Will Discuss Case of Ukrainian Citizen Today

Today on June 27, the Tbilisi Civil Court will discuss the case of Orest Bokhonko, a Ukrainian citizen.

Bokhonko arrived in Tbilisi in September 27, 2008 and he was arrested on that same day. He is accused of purchase, storage and import of a great amount of drugs to Georgia. The accused does not plead guilty.

The defense lawyers of the accused are Khatuna Janashia, Shorena Kalandia and Nino Andriashvili, a jurist of the Human Rights Center who has information about the wrongdoings carried out during the arrest of the Ukrainian citizen. According to her Bukhonko was interrogated in a violent way and how they found drugs on him had many shortcomings. “The drugs were found in the anus of the Ukrainian citizen and the search was carried out by Kokhta Kodua, the head of KUD (Georgian Special Forces) in Samegrelo-Upper Svaneti. This fact is considered to be torture, a serious violation of human rights,” said Nino Andriashvili.

According to the lawyers of Bokhonko, the accused was arrested without any being offered any legal help from a lawyer and even the Embassy of Ukraine was not informed about the detention of the Ukrainian citizen. According to Bokhonko, during his detention he was beaten in a brutal way and forced to sign some document, he did not know what it was about, as he does not know Georgian and no one explained the summary of the document to him.

Many international organizations got interested in this case and they strongly demanded for the prisoner to be released.

It should be noted that the Prosecutor’s Office had delayed the discuss on several occasions. It was postponed for two times and his arrest deadline passes on June 27. If the Court does not pass a sentence it would be another violation of the law,” said Andriashvili.