Bachana Akhalaia Denies All Charges

Salome Chkheidze

At a trial held on July 4th, former Defense Minister Bachana Akhalaia was interrogated regarding the charges of torture and inhuman treatment of soldiers at Senaki and Vaziani military bases and episode of illegal detention of Zviad Abesadze. Former Defense Minister stated that he has never assaulted any soldier verbally or physically and his detention is politically motivated.

“I was indicted on the second day I came back to Georgia. At that time there were no complaints against me. They swiftly found people, forced them to give their testimonies and arrested me on the second day I came back. I am sure that if there was no pressure from the side of investigation, they would have not written complaints. My detention was hurried and politically motivated,” – Bachana Akhalaia stated during interrogation. 

Regarding the Senaki episode Akhalaia noted that commander Arsoshvili approached him during the briefing in Senaki and told him that he had brought several soldiers from Norio base who refused to exercise and eat dinner. According to Akhalaia, he questioned soldiers about what happened in the base and then Arsoshvili asked them if they would exercise now. They said yes and the commander took him out to exercise, according to Akhalaia. According to Akhalaia, briefing continued for several minutes afterwards and he went to the yard when it was over where he saw that the soldiers were still exercising. Defendant stated that he told Arsoshvili to rest the soldiers and left the territory.

During the interrogation Akhalaia stated that he has never insulted any soldier. According to him, he had never made any command on the subject of where the soldiers should spend night. As for locking up in the bathroom, according to defendant, he has never used such methods.

Former Defense Minister talked about Vaziani episode as well. According to him, members of Special Forces were brought from Vashlijvari unit of Special Forces to Vaziani base due to not meeting the work requirements and subsequent demotion. Akhalaia stated that he met with some of them at first in his cabinet and then altogether in Vaziani brigade. The meeting was attended by whole military unit, he stated. According to him, he told them that if they prepared well, they would be able to go back to Special Forces, if not, then they had to stay in Vaziani 4th brigade without expressing dissatisfaction or leave the job. According to the defendant, no physical or verbal assault had occurred neither from him or any other military personnel.

Prosecutor Kobaidze stated that at the previous trial Bachana Akhalaia often asked sufferers questions like – “were your actions continuation of Mukhrovani rebellion?” “Were you drunk?” and etc… According to Kobaidze, in this way defendant tried to association actions of soldiers to an attempt of rebellion. Prosecutor asked Akhalaia what prompted him to change his version. Akhalaia stated that he had never asked anything like that to the sufferers and if there were signs of rebellion either in Vaziani or Norio, investigation would have started immediately.

Akhalaia also talked about episode of illegal detention of businessman Zviad Abesadze. He stated that when he came to restaurant Maspinedzelo, it caused uneasiness since they did not have good relationship. According to defendant, he left restaurant in several minutes and he does not know what happened afterwards.

“I never asked anybody to illegally detain Abesadze. There has to be a motive to ask such thing. When he came to the restaurant, we just felt uneasy because we did not have good relationship,” – Akhalaia stated.

The charges brought against former Defense Minister are abuse of authority, illegal detention of individual and organization of torture.

People indicted along with Bachana Akhalaia are former Chief of Joint Staff of Georgian Armed Forces; Zurab Shamatava, former head of 4th brigade Merab Kikabidze, former head of Senaki second brigade, sergeant of General Staff of Armed Forces; former deputy head of penitentiary department Gaga Mkurnalidze and employees of penitentiary department, Manuchar Daraselia and Giorgi Kintsurashvili.