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Prisoner on Hunger-Strike Requests Revision of Her Charge

August 1, 2017
 
Natia Gogolashvili

Convicted Tamar Talikadze has been on hunger-strike for more than one week in the Prison # 5. She sent a letter to Human Rights Center stating that she will continue her protest until her criminal charge is revised. The woman has been in prison since August 1, 2007. Human Rights Center defends her interests. 

Tamar Talikadze was convicted to 30-years imprisonment term under the Article 260 Part 3 – “a” and Article 262 Part 4 – “a” of the Criminal Code of Georgia. Based on the December 28, 2012 Law on Amnesty of Georgia, Tamar Talikadze was amnestied by 17 years for the charge under the Article 260 and the imprisonment term under the Article 262 was reduced at 1/3. In the end, Tamar Talikadze has to serve 13 years and 4 months in prison. 
Lawyer of Human Rights Center Eka Kobesashvili said the investigation into the criminal case against Tamar Talikadze was carried out through several violations; the evidence were not studied thoroughly, impartially and comprehensively. The HRC lawyer addressed the Chief Prosecutor’s Office of Georgia to re-consider the criminal charge of Tamar Talikadze in the frame of the Department to Investigate Offenses Committed in the Course of Legal Proceedings. 

Tamar Talikadze claims she is innocent and states that the judgment was not fair. In her letter to Human Rights Center, she recalled the facts from the detention day and underlines the circumstances which should become basis for repeated investigation into her case. 

Tamar Talikadze said she and her minor daughter (at that moment she was 12) were arrested at the Georgian border when they were coming from Turkey. 

“We travelled together with a woman, who I knew; she worked in Istanbul. She was travelling together with her friend [Eka], whom I did not know. We travelled together until Sarfi checkpoint. On the border, she gave a small bag to my daughter and asked to keep it for some time because she had a lot of luggage with her. She said she would take the bag back after passing the Georgian custom’s office. Initially my daughter went through the customs and I was waiting for checking the luggage. The daughter went to drink water but soon returned together with two men. They were officers of the Special Operation Department. They told me to follow them for search. They could not find anything suspicious in my bags but there was large amount of narcotic substance Heroine in the small bag,” the convicted Talikadze said and added that the SOD officers did not pay attention to her explanations and did not do anything to arrest the real criminal. 

HRC lawyer Eka Kobesashvili said Talikadze was convicted without real confirmation of her participation in the criminal fact. 

“The investigation did not try to estimate the real owner of the bag. They did not identify whether the persons, whom the witness mentioned during the interrogation, were really traveling from Turkey on that day or not. If they had estimated these facts, the investigation could conduct recognition procedure which would have proved innocence of Tamar Talikadze. In addition to that, dactyloscopic expertise was not carried out on the perfume box and package, where the narcotics were discovered – it could show whether the finger-prints on them belonged to Talikadze or not. The main evidence in the case materials are the statements of the SOD officers and the narcotic substances withdrawn from the bag of Mariam Talikadze (the daughter). These evidence were not enough to prove the guiltiness of Tamar Talikadze,” Eka Kobesashvili said. 

In accordance to the information collected by Human Rights Center, certain person Eka is mentioned in the criminal cases of people, who were arrested in the same place at different times, she is mentioned as a source of the narcotic substances in all those cases. “It is noteworthy that one and the same investigator, same prosecutor, same judge and state-funded lawyer participate in the most criminal cases. It demonstrates that certain woman Eka was implementing the orders of concrete person,” Eka Kobesashvili said. 

Convicted Tamar Talikadze has grave health problems. She said she will continue the hunger-strike until her requests are satisfied. At the same time she requests meeting with the Public Defender with Mr. Irakli Nadareishvili from the prosecutor’s office, Ms. Eka Beselia from the Legal Committee of the Parliament, with Mr. Mamuka Mdinaradze, with Mr Irakli Kobakhidze, also with the parliamentary secretary of the Prime Minister of Georgia and Minister of Corrections Mr. Kakhi Kakhishvili.

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