Arbitrary Detention – Business as Usual in Georgia

Arbitrary Detention – Business as Usual in Georgia

The detention of Merab Beridze, Rector of the Meskheti and Djavakheti Branch (in the cities of Akhaltikhe and Akhalkalaki) of Ivane Djavakhishvili State University, has resonated strongly in Akhaltsikhe as well as in Tbilisi. Students and professors alarmed by the detention held mass protests in the streets demanding the Rector’s release.  Ana Dolidze, Head of the Young Lawyers’ Association, considers that charges brought against Beridze and his detention are absolutely illegal and lack any evidence.  Despite this fact, the court sentenced him to three months pre-detention, though after a few days he was released on bail and later the court ruled to restore Merab Beridze to the position of the Rector of the Akhalkalaki Branch of Tbilisi State University from where he had been dismissed before the end of investigation. As the Rector states, even if he is restored to the position, he will not go back to his previous position. 

The Rector of the Meskheti Branch of Tbilisi State University was detained with charges of abuse of power. The Prosecutor’s Office charged him with the purposeless spending of 58,000GEL. Ana Dolidze, Head of the Young Lawyers’ Association, thinks that Merab Beridze did not deserve the preventive measure because the investigation lacked evidence sufficient to demonstrate his guilt.

After the District Court sentenced Beridze to pre-detention, another trial was held at the same location from which he was dismissed from his position.

Dolidze considers the charges against Beridze to be completely absurd. “Merab Beridze is charged with abuse of power. One of the main elements of abuse of power is that a person has some profit for himself or others. In this case, the order of the judge of the first instance court stated that he had not taken even one Tetri (a coin  less than a GEL) home. All the money paid by the students was distributed among the professors in the form of their salaries and materials confirm this fact. This means that the investigation and the court themselves confirmed that he had made no profit for himself.  The judge’s decision also stated that students had been given an advantage by not entering military service in exchange for attending the Military Chamber at the university.  It should be remembered here, though, that in order to consider an abuse of power, it is necessary to demonstrate that someone’s rights were violated. In this case, students are named as victims for having not gone to the military, but this is absurd. How can people be considered simultaneously both takers of an advantage and victims of this same advantage?,” stated Ann Dolidze, the head of the Young Lawyers’ Association, which is defended Beridze’s rights at the trial.

The issue of power is also very important. Who was entitled to make the decision about the having the military chamber for the students? Did Beridze have the right to abuse this power? According to his attorney, in this case he was not the person who made the decision i.e., the person who was in a position to abuse power since a lot of other facilities and high ranking officials were involved in this process. This is also mentioned in the order, as well as the Head of the Military Chamber, his co-worker Roin Metreveli, Rector of Tbilisi State University, and even the Ministry of Defense, which had been taking pledges from the students throughout this period and had been granting them military rank.

“There is an order by Metreveli regarding the students’ obligation to attend the Military Chamber. There is also an agreement by the Military Chamber and what is most important, there is an order of the Ministry of Defense regarding this. That’s why I think that to find this person guilty in abuse of power would be absurd,” states Ana Dolidze.

Huge pressure was exerted on the court while it adjudicated the sentence of the Rector of the Akhaltsikhe Branch to three months pre-detention. The judge made the decision with the attendance of the Head of Police and Special Operation Team.

At present Merab Beridze has been released on bail and restored as the Rector of Akhaltsikhe, but he is not going to stay on in the position and is thinking of conducting scientific activities in future.

Nino Bestavashvili