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A citizen who has become homeless

July 24, 2015
 
Nino Kimadze

“In 1992 I came from Sokhumi to Tbilisi and with my savings I bought an apartment with space of 249m2 for 3000 dollars in Avlabari on Abdushelashvili Street. In 2004, because of the construction of the Presidential Residence, our apartment was illegally alienated without any compensation,”- told Iza Gvajaia to humanrights.ge.

According to Gvajaia, in 1992 it was impossible to register an apartment for IDPs, so she took a warrant from Ludmila Zaritskaia, the former owner. In 1993, in order to extend the warrant, Gvajaia went to Krasnodar to visit Zaritskaia and took two warrants from the former owner, one for the privatization and other for the purchase agreement. As Gvajaia says, as long as it required losing the status of IDP in order to have a purchase agreement, she preferred to leave the apartment under the name of the former owner. 

In 2004, when the decision was made to build a Presidential Residence on the Abdushelashvili street, she needed to update the warrant, because the warrant that she made in 1993 was expired. 

According to Iza Gvajaia, she gave 150 dollars to a trustee Mamuka Tkebuchava and sent him to Krasnodar. Gvajaia received the warrant in 3 days and submitted request for registration of the apartment. 

“Later, we were informed that a former policeman Zurab Otarashvili and owner of casinos and bookmakers Gela Dzidzikashvili contacted Mamuka tkebuchava, because they wanted to fraudulently take away the property from my family,” – said Iza Gvajaia. 

According to Gvajaia, Dzidzikashvili and Otarashvili promised a lot of money to Mamuka Tkebuchava in exchange of following the plan. Tkebuchava stole the warrant that he had brought and went to visit Zaritskaia again, he lied to her and took a new warrant on the name of Zurab Otarashvili. Based on this warrant, Zurab Otarashvili registered the property of Iza Gvajaia on the name of Mamuka Tkebuchava. 

Despite the fact that Ludmila Zaritskaia has testified in Iza Gvajaia’s favor for 5 times, the Prosecutor’s Office did not take it into account and sealed the apartment. 

In December 21 2007, by the decision of the court, the residential apartment of Iza Gvajaia was accounted to Ludmila Zaritskaia. By the same decision, Tbilisi City Hall was obliged to pay compensation to Iza Gvajaia in amount of 595 000 dollars. However, they have not transferred the money yet. 

In 2014, Iza Gvajaia addressed for help to the candidate on the position of Tbilisi mayor, Davit Narmania, who assigned Badri Giorgidze, the current manager of Audit Office, to examine this case. Badri Giorgidze promised Gvajaia that he would help, and together with Narmania addressed the Prime Minister for mediation. According to the lawyer of the victim, Mariam Neparidze, this letter was transferred to Nikoloz Sanikidze in the Prosecutor’s Office of Vake-Saburtalo. After this, the process was suspended. Humanrights.ge tried to contact Sanikidze for several times but to no avail. 

 According to Badri Giorgidze, it is a responsibility of the Prosecutor’s office to solve this issue and the City Hall is not liable. As Giorgidze said, Tbilisi City Hall provides monthly payment for Iza Gvajaia’s family to cover the rent for the temporary shelter. 

According to the information of Gvajaia’s lawyer Mariam Neparidze, at this moment the investigation of Gvajaia’s case is assigned to a prosecutor Guram Okruashvili. According to Guram Okruashvili this case was transferred to Tbilisi Prosecutor’s office for review. 

The victim Iza Gvajaia is still waiting for the examination of the case and issuance of the final verdict. 

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