Accused Denies Allegation on Exploding Shell in front of the Police Office

Saba Tsitsikashvili, Shida Kartli

By midday on February 18, 2013 an explosion occurred in front of the Kaspi police office. At about 6:00 pm police arrested Davit Gabodze, 29, walking in the street. Handcuffed suspect told journalists gathered in front of the police office that he had no idea what he was arrested for. Several hours later, he was accused of the participation in the explosion of that day.

Human Rights Center’s Gori office found out that prosecutor’s office charged the detainee under three articles – Article 273, 236 and 353 of the Criminal Code of Georgia that envisage punishment for illicit keeping, purchase and sale of ammunition, disobedience to police officers and illicit production-keeping of narcotic substance for personal use.

The accused admitted his guiltiness only under Article 273 of the Criminal Code of Georgia – drug-addiction. He does not plead guilty in other two articles and claims that the imposed charges are unfair. The accused noted that police officers used physical force against him when detaining him several hours after the explosion.

Lawyer Gocha Gochitashvili protects Gabodze’s interests. He took up the case later and said the detainee was not timely tested [on drug-addiction]. So, it is too late to detect abuse traces now.

Reportedly, prosecutor’s office has two witnesses and they are police officers. Both of them have already appeared to the court and made statements.

Gocha Iordanashvili recalled the February 18 explosion as follows.

Gocha Iordanashvili (inspector-investigator of Kaspi district unit of MIA): “I saw several people standing in front of the building in the morning. Two of them - Davit Gabodze and Amiran Mikhanashvili - were talking each other. Both of them were summoned to the investigator for drug-abuse but as far as I know they were summoned separately and talked each other at the police office. Several minutes later Mikhanashvili entered the police office and told me and my colleague that Davit Gabodze was drunk and had asked him out to talk with certain guys. Mikhanashvili said he entered the building to avoid incident. We looked out and saw Gabodze waved his hand towards the police office and ran away; several seconds later there was explosion and we could not see anything.

One more police officer Vasil Beriashvili made almost equal statement.

Gocha Gochitashvili asked police officers at the trial whether Gabodze was holding anything when he waved in the direction of police office. Police officers said they did not see anything though they had marked in their initial testimonies to the preliminary investigation that Gabodze was holding shell.

Although police officers knew who was owner of the shell from the very beginning, they managed to arrest him only 2-3 hours later “after a long search.” The investigation did not enclose recordings of the video-camera to the case materials and the only evidence in it is “waving the hand.”

According to official recordings, Davit Gabodze was not summoned to police office on that day. However, he had been twice summoned to the police earlier –on January 21 and February 13. The defense side believes the accused had no motive to throw anything at the police office on that day.

The police demands the accused to reimburse the damaged car and façade of the police building whose price amounts to 2 345, 50 lari.