The guns kept in the children’s wardrobes, in other words how the political prisoners started

The Conservative party member Demur Antia was arrested on September 5th, 2008 in the morning at 5 o’clock. The search took place in his home early in the morning. Police found guns on the second floor in the children’s room. Despite the obvious violations in his case, Antia was convicted a year in prison.

According to the criminal law case (#083080163), Ministry of Internal Affairs Zugdidi Police Department received the operative information, that Demur Antia was kept illegal guns in his home. The search was attended by two neighbors. The search paper was signed by them and the police agents themselves.

Demur Antia didn’t admit his crime and declared that he was persecuted with political motives.
 
Fifteen policemen searching one house

Demur Antia lives in the old, two storied house with many doors and a window, which is always open in the summer. According to Antia, his wife, and a neighbor (a witness), before searching the house policemen freely walked in the rooms even though family members objected. The policemen called for the witnesses when they started searching and not at the time of entering the house. Therefore, the policemen could bring guns in the house without anybody noticing it.

Darejan Kobalia, wife of Demur Antia: “It was still dark. I heard some noise from the back of the house. I thought someone was stealing our cow and got up, suddenly I heard banging on the door. When I opened the door, I saw the policemen. We were taken downstairs and were kept in the room. Meanwhile, about 15 policemen searched the house and the yard. They were everywhere, in the yard, on the first, the second floor… They walked freely in the room. It could have been very easy to secretly put guns in the house. If Demur wanted to hide the guns, why would he hide them in the room of minor boys?”

The witnesses Shermadin Sarsania and Joni Chitanava confirm that they saw how the policemen took guns out of the wardrobe. Shermadin Sarsania declares that he didn’t want to sign the paper since he was sure that the guns were put there by the policemen themselves.

Shermadin Sarsania, witness: “They opened the wardrobe and the automatic gun fell out. Darejan started screaming. We didn’t want to sign the paper since the guns were put there by the policemen, but we were forced to go sign it in the police department.”

Except for these, the case includes the testimonies of the policemen (the inspecto-investigators of the district Lekso Rapava and Irakli Jobava). According to their testimonies, only three policemen entered the house.

Despite different authors, the text of the testimonies are absolutely identical. The whole text is repeated word by word, including grammatical errors and punctuation marks. This makes it clear that the witnesses were not interrogated, they just signed the prepared text.

Double Standard

Despite the fact that except for Demur Antia, his wife, mother-in-law and four children lived in the house, only Demur Antia was arrested for illegal keeping of the guns though nothing indicated that the guns belonged particularly to him.

We can draw a parallel between this and Nora Kvitsiani case. Nora Kvitsiani also was arrested for illegally keeping guns in her house even though his husband and son also lived in there. In that case, the court ruled that out of three members of family the guns belonged to the woman. In this case, on the contrary, the court decided that the gun belonged to Antia since he was the man and the leader of the family.

As for the gun itself, the expert examination conclusion indicates whose fingerprints the gun has. But the fact is that the gun never went through such an examination that intensifies the doubt that really the gun didn’t have the fingerprints of Antia or his family, but the fingerprints of the policemen. The search paper states, that one unnumbered automatic gun was found and 30 cartridges. But the expert examination conclusion mentions numbered gun (AK 74, #1114). Therefore, that means that another gun was examined.

Demur Antia’s lawyer Temur Kardava pays attention to the timing of the search. If the police received information about guns during working hours, they should have started search immediately. Otherwise, it means that they received information at 4 a.m.

David Bakradze: “Protect yourselves with every means”

In the August of 2008, the speaker of the parliament encouraged Samegrelo population to protect themselves using every possible means since there was a danger of occupants attacking from Abkhazia. Russians really entered Samegrelo, that resulted in paralyzation of government authorities. While the police was searching Antia’s home, Samegrelo was still occupied by Russians, therefore the danger still existed. Therefore, the existence of guns at home would have been a reaction to the encouragement of parliament speaker. This argument was not considered by the court.

Personally Antia thinks that his arrest is connected to his political work. According to him, the government especially got mad at one specific fact.

Demur Antia, former political prisoner: “After Bakradze’s proclamation, non government branch was left in Samegrelo. I went to the office of UN, met with the officer Clive Trot and told him that the city was left without a patron. People were in panic, the information about Russian army was coming. I asked them to take certain measures. Trot addressed Russian military forces and told me that there was no danger. Apparently, people heard about me going to Trot and letting him know about the current situation. It seems like some people got irritated at this.”

We addressed Ministry of Internal Security with the official letter regarding the case of Demur Antia and requested the comment. We never received the answer. The ministry didn’t wish to address to the accusations of Antia against Ministry authorities.

Three Courts, One Verdict

Though there is a lot of evidence of falsification of this case, no court ruled the verdict of not guilty. Demur Antia was sentenced to a year in prison (paragraph 1, article 236 of the Criminal Code). The decision was appealed both in Kutaisi appellate and supreme court, but without a result. Antia fully served the sentence.

Right now the case of Demur Antia is sent to Strasbourg Human Rights Court. Antia is asking for moral compensation and right of just court.