Aleko Tskitishvili
The society knows that since December 2017 I have a court dispute with the Tbilisi City Hall and the Georgian Water Distribution Company GWP. In my appeal to the court, I request installment protection barriers and information banners nearby the so-called waterfall in the territory of the Tbilisi Sea. I also claim moral compensation for the death of my son Tsotne Tskitishvili, who drowned in the Tbilisi Sea in 2017.
The society is more or less informed about the ongoing dispute in the court and this time, I would like to mention that in summer 2019 the Tbilisi
City Court satisfied my appeal and ordered the Tbilisi City Hall to arrange barriers and information banners nearby the so-called waterfall in the Tbilisi Sea, where the River Aragvi flows into the Tbilisi Sea Reservoir.
At the same time, the Tbilisi City Court did not satisfy my appeal about the compensation that is unclear because pursuant to the case law of the European Court of Human Rights, the state is responsible to protect the life of an individual and if similar tragedy happens at the state’s fault, the victim family shall receive the compensation.
By requesting the compensation, I would like to compel the opponent party to fully acknowledge their responsibilities, which they do not feel nowadays.
Naturally, no amount of money will compensate the loss of my son but I intend to purchase land in Tbilisi with the compensation sum (50 000 GEL) and arrange a parkour park on it. It was my son’s dream – to have a well-equipped parkour park in Tbilisi.
On the Youtube page of Tsotne’s team –
Delta Freerunning you will see how the children are training on the parkour ground, which they have arranged in Didi Digomi district with their own resources. This
video-collage shows that Delta permanently changed their play-grounds because the developers constructed multi-story residential building on the ground where they used to train in the beginning. The
Radio Liberty prepared a video-story about the
Delta on their new play-ground, where Tsotne is speaking about his team. Nowadays, the team has abandoned that ground too and the new team members moved the tyres to
another place.
Currently, the Tbilisi Appellate Court examines my appeal against the Tbilisi City Hall and GWP. Human Rights Center defends my legal interests in the court. The Tbilisi City Hall also
appealed the judgment of the Tbilisi City Court. Short time ago, we filed a separate lawsuit against the GWP under the civil law, where we request the company to reinforce safety measures on the territory to prevent the citizens from getting into the waterfall like it happens today.
In the Tbilisi City Court, we offered the Tbilisi City Hall to set up a working group, which could work on the arrangement of barriers and warning banners in the area. Unfortunately, the City Hall did not agree to start any negotiations and continues dispute with our family with their stubborn position that only victims are responsible for what happens in the dangerous places on the Tbilisi Sea.
This time, in the Appellate Court, we once again offer the agreement to the Tbilisi City Hall. With this suggestion, we try to resolve the problems in a short time, which were impossible to resolve during three years in the court.
Namely, we have the following proposals:
1. To establish a working group in the Tbilisi City Assembly, which, with the participation of the applicant, will determine the necessary measures to be taken in the territory of the Tbilisi Sea to protect human lives and install barriers and warning banners there.
It is important to set up the working group timely who will decide what kind of barriers and banners will be arranged in the disputed territory, which is under ownership of the Tbilisi City Hall, by the end of 2020. It is important that barriers and information banners were installed before the summer season of 2021.
Major goal of the applicant is to protect the citizens, particularly adolescents, from the dangerous environment. The case files contain the information about the number of adolescents, who drowned in the so-called waterfall in the past few years. Most of them were school-children. The youth may get into the dangerous place without encountering any barriers or warning banners.
2. We propose the Tbilisi City Hall to allocate 1500 sq/meter land in the territory of the Didi Digomi district to arrange a parkour park on it – under the joint ownership of the applicant and the state (Tbilisi City Hall). After the court dispute is over, Tsotne’s family plans to purchase a land in Didi Digomi district in Tbilisi, where the Tsotne Tskitishvili Parkour Park will be arranged – special public space for the youth, who goes in for the parkour. I think, it should be within the interests of the Tbilisi municipal government to arrange similar public space in the capital. Therefore, I offer the opponent party to reach agreement in the Appellate Court – the Tbilisi City Hall shall allocate a territory for the Parkour Park in Didi Digomi, which will be under joint ownership and management of the Tbilisi City Hall and Tsotne Tskitishvili’s family (50%-50%). The new parkour park will be arranged there with joint efforts, where the youth will be able to have public, safe space to train, which will prevent them from going to dangerous sites for training in future.