Salome Achba
Much was written about deprivation of private properties in Sighnaghi by media sources and by humanrights.ge too. This story differs from other cases because the victim is the citizen of Ireland Ciara Rosemarie O'Sullivan. The property was seized from her without being warned.
On March 1, 2007 the Ministry of Economic Development announced competition to sell the building in Kostava Street in Sighnaghi at the auction. It was time, when the government launched the reconstruction process in Sighnaghi and the media-sources led active propaganda to attract foreign investors.
Solid purchasers – Vano Tsabutashvili and Gocha Ghvinepadze won the competitions. According to the auction, the property certificate was issued on the new owners of the building. According to the purchase agreement, the purchaser had to execute the following requirements: they had to pay the privatization sum within 30 days; to open a pub in the building, to renovate the façade and invest 100 000 GEL in it.
The purchasers executed the abovementioned requirements soon. The examination protocols of the two officials of the Ministry of Economic Development prove the fact. The protocols state that as it was required, the façade of the building was renovated and the pub was opened in the building. The Ministry officially confirmed that the investment of the requested 100 000 GEL was done and the privatization sum was paid on time. Consequently, on May 28, 2007 property certificates were issued on Gocha Ghvipenadze and Vano Tsabutashvili.
Soon, the purchasers – Ghvinpeadze and Tsabutashvili, signed the dissociation agreement and marked off their properties – the ground floor was assigned to Ghvinpadze and the second floor - to Tsabutashvili. In 2008, Vano Tsabutashvili sold his property – the second floor of the building to his sister-in-law, citizen of Ireland and Georgia Ciara Rosemarie O'Sullivan.
Attorney of Ciara Rosemarie O'Sullivan Malkhaz Pataraia said that although the purchaser completely executed the requirements of the purchase agreement with the ministry of economic development, the building was seized from the owner. In addition, the Ministry has not explained the reason of seizure to Rosemary yet.
“In 2010, when the property already belonged to Rosemary, the Ministry of Economic Development started administrative process on abolishment of the purchase agreement with Vano Tsabutashvili and Gocha Ghvinepadze. The reason was – Tsabutashvili breached the requirements of the agreement. On March 16, the ministry issued a decree on abolishment of the agreement and the property was assigned back to the state. The regional department ordered the Public Registry to seize the property. The latter registered the property on the state again,” said Malkhaz Pataraia.
In accordance to the Article 21 of the Constitution of Georgia a property can be deprived from the owner in the case of the urgent necessity. In other cases, the property shall be deprived based on the court decision. In this particular case, there was no urgent necessity to deprive the property. Despite that, the state seized the property of Rosemary selfishly without any court decisions.
“According to the law, the Ministry of Economic Development and their Kakheti regional office should not have referred to the Public Registry for the deprivation of the property but to the court which had to decide whether to seize the property or not,” said the attorney Malkhaz Pataraia.
If Ciara Rosemarie O'Sullivan and Vano Tsabutashvili really breached any requirement of the agreement, the Ministry had to inform the purchasers about it before abolishment of the agreement in written form or gave them some time for the improvement of the mistake as well estimate the fine for breaching the agreement.
The attorney said that property was seized from his client without any preliminary warning. However, the Ministry was obliged to send the letter to her in accordance to the purchase agreement.
Pataraia added that in fact, Ciara Rosemarie O'Sullivan does not know yet why the property was seized from her and which concrete requirement was breached by her. Rosemary and her attorney have been trying to estimate the truth for a long time. However, the official documents issued by the Ministry do not clarify the reason at all.
Malkhaz Pataraia, the attorney: “The representative of the Ministry of Economic Development Shanidze confessed in the conversation with us that it was a mistake. I told him to start administrative process and annul the incorrectly issued decree on the abolishment of the purchase agreement. But he refused saying the Public Registry seized the property from the owner and not the ministry of economic development. All in all, we have faced the unprecedented unprofessionalism of the officials working for the governmental institutions. I can assume that somebody liked the building and wants to get hold of it. The government has successfully “arranged” similar affairs in Sighnaghi and in many other places too when the properties belonged to the citizens of Georgia. But my client Ciara Rosemarie O'Sullivan is not going to surrender and give up her property. We have already appealed to the court and it is discussing our suit.”
The executive director of the Human Rights Center Ucha Nanuashvili said it is continuation of the policy of the Georgian government against property rights. “The government has already spent funds received as grants of various international organizations; now they have faced serious financial problems and try to fill in the budget through similar methods. Besides, it is not first fact of seizing the property from owners and unfortunately, it will not be the last one either.”
The Human Rights Center intends to hold a special press-conference about deprivation of the property from Ciara Rosemarie O'Sullivan in near future. Ucha Nanuashvili said the Center will inform the international community about the situation and request their support in it.
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