Human Rights Center is concerned with the ineffective response of the Marneuli district prosecutor’s office to the crime

The beneficiary of the organization was victim of physical, psychological and economical violence from her former husband for 30 years. Currently they are divorced but the former husband continues to violate her psychologically and economically and threatens to kill her and her children and to deconstruct her property.

On November 9, 2016, during the court hearing in the Bolnisi district court, the former husband threatened the woman with murder in the presence of her lawyer, court resource officer and court secretary. As a result the woman is afraid that the former husband will really kill her.

As the restrictive order was issued on the harasser twice but it was ineffective, Human Rights Center addressed the Marneuli district division of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and requested to start criminal investigation into threatening the woman with murder. 

The police started investigation under the Article 151 (threatening) of the CCG though the Center requested to commence the investigation under the Article 111 (domestic violence). However, Marneuli district prosecutor’s office dropped the investigation two months later claiming that there were no signs of crime in the case.

Human Rights Center believes that the criminal investigation was not properly carried out. The video and audio recording of the November 9, 2016 court hearing was handed to the investigative body, which proves that the woman was threatened by her former husband. The resolution of the prosecutor does not mention those recordings, which shows that investigation was not conducted thoroughly and impartially. The prosecutor only relied on the testimonies of the witnesses and did not study the significant evidence, which proves that the victim woman was really threatened.

Human Rights Center calls on 

The Chief Prosecutor’s Office of Georgia and Kvemo Kartli regional prosecutor to immediately take all necessary measures to annul the resolution and resume the investigation into the case and comprehensively and impartially study the provided evidence. 

Human Rights Center

The press-release was prepared in the frame of the project “Support to the defense of rights of women, religious and ethnic minorities in the regions of Georgia” by Human Rights Center. The project was by supported by the American People through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The contents of this press release are the sole responsibility of Human Rights Center and do not necessarily reflect the views of the East West Management Institute, USAID or the United States Government.