Human Rights Center Doubts Representatives of Prosecutor’s Office Misappropriated Money of Former Convict

Human Rights Center addresses to the Chief Prosecutor’s Office to study the fact of alleged misappropriation of particularly large amount of money – 28 000 USD of the former convict Zurab Gvazava by the employees of the prosecutor’s office.

Human Rights Center defends rights of former convict Zurab Gvazava. On June 24, 2010, law enforcement officers withdrew particularly large amount of money, credit cards, ID card, passport and other documents from his house during the search. Investigator Gocha Saatashvili of the investigative unit at the Georgian Chief Prosecutor’s Office conducted the search.

The withdrawn money and personal belongings were not used as evidence into the case during the investigation stage and after serving the term Zurab Gvazava sent several petitions to the Ministry of Justice (19.11.2012 (#13/47823), 01.04.2013 (#13/35075), 03.04.2013 (#13/36263), 27.07.2013 (#13/76363), where he requested return of the withdrawn belongings and money – 28 000 USD.

On September 23 and October 17, 2013, Human Rights Center also sent official letters to the Chief Prosecutor’s Office requesting the return of personal belongings and money to the former convict but in vain. The Prosecutor’s Office did not reply to the petition in written form. Representative of the Prosecutor’s Office clarified on the phone that the petition was forwarded to the Tbilisi Prosecutor’s Office for further discussion but the latter returned the petition back to the Chief Prosecutor’s Office. Currently, investigator Gocha Saatashvili is in charge to study the case – he is the person who withdraw the personal belongings and money from Gvazava’s house.  

According to the law, the investigator had to do the following: during investigation or afterwards, he had to return the withdrawn belongings and money to Gvazava’s family member (in this particular case to his wife) based on relevant notification letter; there was no necessity to wait for final judgment into the case. Although final judgment was passed, prosecutor’s office did not return belongings and money to Gvazava.

Investigator said during over-phone conversation that prosecutor’s office is discussing to return the money to Zurab Gvazava or not. Almost a year has passed and the discussion is still underway. The investigator claims since the court judgment did not say anything about the belongings withdrawn during the search, it was necessary to eradicate shortcoming/obscurity in the March 1, 2011 judgment of the Criminal Collegium of the Tbilisi City Court (case#1/3990-10, judge Nino Eleishvili).

Human Rights Center believes the court is not responsible for the solution of the issue. Regardless the fact, the organization formally addressed to the court and requested eradication of the shortcoming/obscurity in the judgment. The court underlined in its reply that since withdrawn belongings and money from the flat were not referred as evidence, the court could not add any clarifications about the items in the resolution part of the judgment. So, there is no ground to introduce any amendments or eradicate any mistake in the March 1 2011 judgment.

Considering the aforementioned facts, Human Rights Center doubts representatives of the Chief Prosecutor’s Office, who personally participated in the search of Zurab Gvazava’s flat, misappropriated the personal belongings and the money.

Human Rights Center addresses to the Chief Prosecutor’s Office to start investigation into the illegal misappropriation of Zurab Gvazava’s personal belongings and particularly large amount of money. Investigator, who participated neither in the investigation against Gvazava nor in the search process, shall conduct the new investigation.