Web Portal on Human Rights in Georgia

Tamar Amonashvili, teacher dismissed from Kalauri village public school, who received 177 USD from the charity foundation Komagi, was interrogated as a witness at Gurjaani police.

Tamar Amonashvili is wife of Aleksandre Paposhvili, a zone coordinator of the Georgian Dream’s Gurjaani office.

“I worked as a teacher at Kalauri public school. In April of 2012 I was sacked from school because of my husband’s different political affiliations. In May, I learned from Coalition leaders about the charity foundation Komagi, who assisted people persecuted on political grounds as I was. At the end of May I applied to the Foundation Komagi for help and opened account in the VTB bank. Today, district police attorney brought summon to me and said I was summoned to Gurjaani district MIA department. Having arrived at the police, I met investigator Irakli Shukakidze from Tbilisi who asked if I knew any Natalia Koziupova from Ukraine who had transferred 177 USD to my bank account. I learned about this transfer from them. I was being questioned during one hour and 15 minutes. They mostly inquired about the transferred money. They speak about money laundering and wanted to get any information from me. They told me the woman, who has transferred money to me, is already arrested. I gave a testimony to them and said I was registered at the Charity Foundation “Komagi” and expected them to assist me because I had credit at the bank and could not pay it after being sacked from school. After the interrogation I read the testimony and signed it,” Tamar Amonashvili told ICK.

She added that 10 after the interrogation had finished, she was again summoned to police and requested to video-record her statement.

“They called me back 10 minutes after having left police office and said I had to return and sign a document. At the police office they said it was better to video-record my testimony to make it more reliable and I categorically refused. I told them to show me the law which obliged me to make video-testimony. I told them, I did not trust them,” Tamar Amonashvili said.