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Grigol Kharebava: “Detainees During Protest Rally Targeted to Aggressive and Degrading Treatment in the Detention Setting”

May 2, 2011

Salome Achba

Grigol (Kakha) Kharebava told the Human Rights Center about his 20-day administrative imprisonment. He was detained at the protest rally in front of the Supreme Court of Georgia.

Girgol Kharebava is the brother of Zviad Kharebava - the former advisor to the former prime-minister of Georgia Zurab Nogaideli who is in prison now. Grigol Kharebava was sentenced to 20-day administrative imprisonment together with other dozen citizens who held protest rally in front of the Supreme Court on April 4 for hooliganism and disobedience to police officers. The controversy between the demonstrators and patrol police started after the protesters hang up a wreath on the door of the Supreme Court as if they were “mourning over the dead court”; they also threw eggs against the court building. The demonstrators protested the hard conditions and torture of prisoners in Georgian detention settings.

Grigol Kharebava: “I still do not know why they arrested me and put me in prison for 20 days. I did not commit anything illegal during the rally. The patrol police officers grabbed and took me away. Before the demonstration started, the organizers agreed to be very careful, not to irritate police officers and not to be provoked by anybody in order to prevent further detention of the demonstrators. Consequently, the demonstration was very peaceful. As for throwing eggs against the court building, it happened very spontaneously without preliminary agreement. Several participants hang up a wreath on the door of the Court where we had written: “We are mourning over the Court,” and then they threw the eggs against the building.

-Did you take part in this episode?

-No, I was standing and watching them. Suddenly, about 50 police officers arrived and took people away from the court building towards the sidewalk. Then, the demonstrators started to leave the area. Apparently, they got afraid of the patrol police. Several dozen people remained on the place and the patrol police officers started to arrest us. I could not make out why they were arresting us – they just grabbed us and then took us to police stations.

They took me together with one more demonstrator by a police car; they stopped the car in the underground passage near the Hotel Radisson for a short time. I made out from their conversation that they were going to release us. Soon, somebody called them and ordered to take us to the police station. They took us to the patrol office in Samgori district and collected all demonstrators near the washing-house. We were waiting for them to write protocols for 4-5 hours. The procedure of filling in the protocol was very interesting – they prepared one protocol for every detainee; then they made copies of it and distributed.

Some time later a patrol officer interrogated me; supposedly he was the high-ranking official because other patrol officers said he was their chief. He asked why I participated in the rally. I explained to him that I protested the unbearable conditions in the prison and torture of prisoners. Then he asked how I knew about those problems and I told him my brother was in prison; besides I knew people who have information about torture and inhuman treatment of prisoners in custodies. The patrol official got irritated by my answer, locked the door and left me alone. Then two patrol officers entered the room and informed me Giorgi Gegechkori, the head of the patrol police department, was calling me. I was introduced to Gegechkori who asked me why I had joined the rally. I repeated the same to him. Then he asked why I had hit the patrol police officer but I denied the accusation. He said the witnesses could prove it and showed me about twenty police officers who were standing nearby and alleging that I had beaten them. Later, I was taken to the court building. When I was getting off the car, a man in civil clothes approached me and the police officers suggested him to request 20-day administrative imprisonment for me and 400 GEL fines for others. Indeed, the judge sent me to prison for 20 days for hooliganism and resistance to police. Soon after the trial I was taken to the Digomi pretrial detention setting.

-What kind of conditions were in the detention setting?

-Four of us were placed in one cell. We immediately noticed that the personnel of the detention setting were particularly aggressive towards us; they hated us. I think, they had received some directives how to treat us. As for food, we were almost hungry. Although my wife sent food every day, everything did not reach us. We used to receive only one sausage, one loaf of bread, several cigarettes and a box of match – it was one day portion for four people. The lawyer often visited me and I asked him why my family was sending little food to me; however, I found out that the prison personnel did not give me everything what the family had brought to me. For example, once, the prison personnel brought only one cake and 4 or 5 cigarettes while my wife had brought one box of cigarette and cake. My wife was writing a list of food she had brought and I had to sign the letter after I had compared the received food with the list. However, the personnel used to initially bring the list to sign and then they used to bring the parcel. As a result, I warned my family not to bring more than one loaf of bread and a sausage to me because the prison administration did not give me more.

As for clothes, there were some restrictions about it too. They promised my family to save my clothes with my properties but when I left the prison they did not give me anything. The head of the department used to examine us every day. He was particularly aggressive towards us. He was asking as provocative questions and tried to provoke us.

-Did anybody physically abuse you?

-No, nobody did. I should admit that nobody assaulted or insulted us. There was one more interesting occasion – Kochiev was serving his term in my cell. One day he had bad toothache; I told the bailiff either to call a dentist or to bring a painkiller. He replied to me – forget about painkiller and doctor; if he has toothache you can pull his tooth out.

It was very evident that they treated us differently from other prisoners. For example, other inmates had meal three days per day, they walked in the yard and cleaner cleaned their cells. We could not enjoy any of these advantages. They might have been instructed to create terrible conditions for us in order to prevent us from joining protest rallies in future.

A classmate of mine, an IDP from Abkhazia, travelled to Abkhazia in 2006 to see his house and relatives there. However, he did not have necessary documents to enter Abkhazia and Abkhaz separatists arrested him and put him in prison. The Abkhaz law enforcement officers thought he was a Georgian intelligence officer but as soon as they estimated the truth, set him free. Now, the same person was detained together with me and recalled the conditions in Abkhaz prison. Unlike Georgian prison, he had perfect nutrition and at the end the Abkhaz law enforcement officers invited him to a dinner-party too. Finally, they saw the person to the Enguri Bridge and set him free there.

-Do you connect your detention with the imprisonment of your brother Zviad Kharebava?

-I cannot prove anything but the head of the patrol police department Gegechkori and several other high-ranking officials were particularly interested in my detention. Consequently, the doubt about the connection between my and my brother’s detention is not groundless at all. I am actively involved in the investigation of my brother’s illegal detention; I meet some people about the issue - political parties, organizations. They might have noticed it and decided to put me in prison too. However, it is only doubt and I cannot prove it.

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