Amnesty International Concerns in Europe and Central Asia

Amnesty International

Concerns in Europe and Central Asia
July - December 2004

GEORGIA

This country entry has been extracted from a forthcoming Amnesty International report, CONCERNS IN EUROPE AND CENTRAL ASIA: July - December 2004 (AI Index: EUR 01/002/2005), to be issued in March 2005. Anyone wanting further information on other Amnesty International concerns in Europe and Central Asia should consult the full document.

International scrutiny

Draft report and resolution by the Council of Europe’s Monitoring Committee

The 15 December draft report and resolution on Georgia by the co-rapporteurs Matyas Eörsi and Evgeni Kirilov of the Committee on the honouring of obligations and commitments by member states of the Council of Europe (Monitoring Committee) concluded that the “human rights efforts of the new authorities, in spite of some positive developments, still need to be improved”. They pointed out that the “post-revolutionary situation should not become an alibi for hasty decisions and neglect for democratic and human rights standards”. The co-rapporteurs deplored the fact that advice by Council of Europe experts had not been taken into account adequately on several occasions. For example, they criticized the authorities for having failed to appropriately address suggestions and advice by the Venice Commission regarding amendments to the country’s Constitution adopted by the Georgian parliament in February, as well as those concerning the autonomous status of Ajaria adopted in July.

 With regard to the human rights situation in Georgia the co-rapporteurs raised concern about the “ill-treatment of detainees, particularly during the pre-trial detention [which] continues to be a major problem in Georgia” and called on political leaders including the President to “publicly campaign against any mistreatment of detained persons”. They also deplored the lack of independence of the judiciary and pointed out that the “respect for the principle of the presumption of innocence for some categories of suspects has yet to take hold in the new Georgia”. In addition, the co-rapporteurs highlighted that the prison conditions in the pre-trial detention facilities and prisons they had visited were “extremely bad”, in particular due to overcrowding. They raised concern with regard to the government’s fight against corruption pointing out that “arrests of some former officials accused of corruption were carried out in spectacular circumstances, often without warrants even in cases where there was no indication that suspects had the intention to flee”. The draft report also criticized the “Georgian version of the plea-bargaining system” which was applied in a “seemingly arbitrary way” and was “incompatible with Council of Europe standards”.

 The draft report and resolution proposed -- “as a sign of understanding and support to the new Georgian authorities” -- to extend the deadlines for the fulfilment of a number of commitments undertaken by Georgia when joining the Council of Europe that the country had yet to comply with. For example, it called on the authorities to accede to the European Charter for Regional and Minority Languages and the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities before September 2005. In addition, it urged the authorities to “create, without any further delay, legal, administrative and political conditions for the start of the process of [the] repatriation [of the Meskhetian population] with the view to its completion in the foreseeable future”.
 The draft report and resolution was based on a visit by the co-rapporteurs to Tbilisi and Batumi from 5 to 8 July. It was due to be voted on at the Winter Session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe in January.

European Court declared case filed by Jehovah’s Witnesses admissible

On 6 July the Second Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights declared the application, Gldani Congregation of Jehovah’s Witnesses v. Georgia, admissible. The Jehovah’s Witnesses had filed this case in June 2001.
 The case referred to the October 1999 attack on a congregation of Jehovah’s Witnesses by radical supporters of the Georgian Orthodox Church and the defrocked Georgian Orthodox priest Basil Mkalavishvili. Around 200 attackers beat the congregation of some 120 Jehovah’s Witnesses, who had gathered in a rented theatre in Tbilisi to hold a Sunday service, with iron crosses and wooden clubs. The police reportedly refused to come to their help. Sixteen worshippers were said to have needed hospital treatment as a result of the attack. To AI’s knowledge, none of the alleged perpetrators had been convicted in relation to this attack by the end of the period under review.
 Three more cases were filed with the European Court in the years following the October 1999 attack. They concerned further attacks on Jehovah’s Witnesses as well as the deregistration of two legal entities of the Jehovah’s Witnesses in Georgia that had been confirmed by the Supreme Court of Georgia in February 2001.

Torture and ill-treatment in police custody

AI continued to receive reports about torture and ill-treatment in pre-trial detention.

 For example, on 1 September seven men were reportedly detained in the western town of Zugdidi, accused of membership of a paramilitary group and possession of firearms and explosives. One of them, Geno Kulava, was reportedly tortured and ill-treated in the police station of Khobi district. According to reports, he was suspended from a pole between two tables, kicked and beaten, including with truncheons, and dropped on the floor; a burning candle was held against his forearm and one of the police officers reportedly spat in his face. After his lawyer complained to the court that his client had been tortured, Geno Kulava was examined by forensic experts on two occasions. They found marks of severe beatings and bruises on several parts of his body. The independent forensic expert Maia Nikoleishvili, who examined Geno Kulava on 13 September, established that the bruises were caused by blunt heavy objects. Examining the area of his forearm she did not exclude that the injuries were caused by heat. One of Geno Kulava’s co-defendants, Levan Dzadzua, who was also detained on 1 September, was reportedly beaten by police in the police station of Ingur Paper Mill Settlement, a district belonging to the town of Zugdidi. On 15 November Geno Kulava was released from prison following a court ruling, reportedly because of procedural violations during his detention and the investigation. However, he was immediately rearrested, accused of abducting a resident of Zugdidi. Geno Kulava and Levan Dzadzua were still detained in the investigation-isolation prison No. 4 in Zugdidi at the end of the period under review. The authorities had reportedly not opened a thorough and impartial investigation into the allegations of torture and ill-treatment, and none of the alleged perpetrators had been brought to justice.

Religious minorities

Suspended sentences handed down in connection with a series of attacks on religious minorities (update to AI Indexes: EUR 01/002/2002, EUR 01/001/2004, and EUR 01/005/2004)

By the end of 2004 AI knew of three trials that had resulted in the conviction of several perpetrators of attacks on religious minorities. To AI’s knowledge, none of the attackers had been imprisoned for involvement in a series of attacks on religious minorities by supporters of the Georgian Orthodox Church in recent years. Hundreds of perpetrators of attacks on religious minorities remained unpunished.
 In the first of these trials five men were found guilty of involvement in attacks on Jehovah’s Witnesses by Rustavi City Court in November 2003 and were given suspended sentences of up to four years. In April 2004 a court in Tbilisi reduced the sentences to a maximum of two years following an appeal by the defendants.
 In the second trial that concluded on 14 December Samtredia District Court convicted Dzhano Margiani on charges including “threatening with death, damage to health or destruction of property” (Article 151 of the Criminal Code of Georgia) and “damaging or destroying property” (Art. 187 part 1). He was given a suspended sentence of three years and ordered to pay compensation equivalent to around $1,100. On 28 December Dzhano Margiani and a group of some 40 people reportedly verbally abused and threatened several Jehovah’s Witnesses and damaged a building belonging to members of the Jehovah’s Witness congregation that was in the process of being built.
 In the third case a supporter of defrocked Georgian Orthodox Priest Basil Mkalavishvili was put on trial in August and given a two-year suspended prison sentence on 14 December for his part in attacks on a Jehovah’s Witnesses convention in the town of Marneuli in September 2001. The charges against him included “intentionally causing light damage to health” (Article 120 of the Criminal Code of Georgia), “illegal interference with the execution of religious rites or other religious rules and habits” (Art. 155 part 1), and “damaging or destroying property” (Art. 187). On 28 September 2001, a group of around 100 people, many of whom were wearing masks, reportedly set up a roadblock on a main road leading out of Tbilisi towards the town of Marneuli, where a Jehovah’s Witness convention was due to be held that day. The Jehovah’s Witnesses had reportedly informed the authorities in advance of the convention and received guarantees from the police that proper measures would be taken to protect their right of assembly. However, police reportedly stood aside and watched as the group stopped the buses carrying Jehovah’s Witness delegates, dragged men, women and children outside, and kicked, punched, and beat them with clubs. Up to 40 people were said to have been injured, around 12 seriously. Police also allegedly stood by and watched as the group looted and set fire to the convention site, and confiscated film and a video camera from the Jehovah’s Witnesses.

The trial against Basil Mkalavishvili and six of his supporters (update to AI Index: EUR 01/005/2004)

The trial of defrocked Georgian Orthodox priest Basil Mkalavishvili and Petre Ivanidze, two alleged key figures in the attacks on religious minorities, and of five of their supporters -- Avtandil Donadze, Avtandil Gabunia, Merab Korashinidze, Akaki Mosashvili, and Mikhail Nikolozashvili -- opened in Vake-Saburtalo District Court in Tbilisi on 27 August. The seven men had been arrested by police on 12 March 2004 in an operation marred by excessive use of force by police. Two others were also arrested at the time, but were released before the trial started.
 Basil Mkalavishvili and Petre Ivanidze stood trial accused of storming the Ombudsman’s office in Tbilisi on 22 January 2001; of breaking up two religious gatherings of Jehovah’s Witnesses in January and February 2001 respectively; of an attack on the Baptist church in Tbilisi in March 2001; and of burning United Bible Society and Baptist books in Tbilisi in February 2002. The charges against them included “illegal interference with the execution of religious rites or other religious rules and habits” (Article 155 of the Criminal Code), “persecution” (Art. 156), “beatings” (Art. 125), and “arson” (Art. 187 part 2). The five co-defendants were only charged with “putting up resistance to the police” (Art. 353) relating to the police operation on 12 March.
 There were allegations that at least four victims who had suffered particularly severely from the attacks -- Leila Kartvelishvili, Beniamin Bakuradze, Otar Kalatozishvili and his son Zaza Kalatozishvili -- were dropped from the list of those called to testify in court. The trial was still ongoing at the end of 2004.