Murder Trail Leads to High Ranking Officials

Murder Trail Leads to High Ranking Officials

Aleko Sukhitashvili, the former head of the Shida Kartli District Police Department and his deputy, Rezo Kldiashvili, former head of the Criminal Police are to be questioned. Ramaz Naskidashvili, an investigator with the Investigation Department within the District Police, told the Human Rights Information and Documentation Centre, the two men are to be questioned regarding the murder of Rezo Basharuli. The murder took place in November of 2004. The father of the murdered man, Tamaz Basharuli, believes that high ranking officials above are involved in the case. Aleko Sukhitashvili and Rezo Kldiashvili currently work for the Military Police Department within the Ministry of Defense.

On the night of November 4th 2004, Tamaz Basharuli was told to come to the Electro Company building. Once there he was shown his son shot dead in a ‘Niva’ car. Police Officers informed the father that his son had been shot whilst resisting arrest after being caught trying to steal the car.

Relatives of the dead man at first thought that the owner of the car, Gia Naochashvili, had challenged and shot Basharuli whilst “defending his car”. That was the story spread a year ago. Now however, the court’s experts challenge this version of events.

At that time, Gori Regional Prosecutor, Tamuna Tlashadze, closed the murder case, classifying it as the ‘killing of a car thief at the scene of the crime’; a version of events developed by Sukhitashvili. However, the investigation was not carried out objectively and the facts had not been properly studied. 

A year passed before the father finally managed to obtain a conclusion by the court experts. According to the expert’s, Rezo Basharuli was not killed inside the car. The new version of events shows that Rezo Basharuli was placed inside the car after the murder took place.

Tamaz Basharuli says that according to the experts’ conclusion, the trajectory of the bullets shot at the car does not coincide with the bullet wounds on the dead man’s body. The car has some bullet holes. The Head of the Police, Sukhitashvili and the prosecutor Tamuna Tlashadze concluded the difference was due to forensic evidence being taken at the scene of the murder without a final conclusion being given by the experts.

Tamaz Basharuli claims: “According to the experts, no trace of my son’s blood was found either inside the car or outside of it. What’s more, the car had been crashed into a wall in such a way that it could not have been stolen from that location. I kept asking for the case to be investigated objectively and in full detail, but it was closed without either the experts’ conclusion or the questioning of those police officers who appeared to be at the scene of the crime “immediately”. I believe that my son was deliberately killed by the police; it was not simply an accident during a robbery. The experts confirm that my son had two bullets in his body; however, the sweater that he was wearing only had one bullet hole in it. The second shot seems to have been fired from a gun actually touching my son’s chest, in other words, he was deliberately shot in his heart at close range”. 

Doubts about the case were initially raised in the victim’s family because the Head of the Regional Criminal Police, Rezo Kldishvili, used to extort money from Basharuli by threatening to arrest him. Basharuli’s relatives told a representative of the Human Rights Information and Documentation Centre that the vague details of the case only appear to confirm the conflict between Rezo Kldiashvili and Basharuli. They link Basharuli’s murder with his refusal to pay money to the police.

Investigator Ramaz Naskidashvili states that despite all his efforts to question Aleko Sukhitashvili and Rezo Kldiashvili, they have so far refused to cooperate with the investigation. Furthermore, Sukhitashvili told the investigation that the press service of the Ministry of Defense, where he is now employed, had banned him from giving testimony regarding the case.

Gia Naochashvili, the owner of the car, states in his testimony for the preliminary investigation (which we managed to obtain) that he heard shooting from the Electro Company building and when he went outside he saw his car already crashed into a wall. Naochashvili also noticed the person inside the car was dead. Thus, according to this new evidence, Naochashvili could not have challenged the robber because he knew he had already been killed.

Mikheil Abuladze, the Shida Kartli District Prosecutor states that the investigation has no evidence incriminating Sukhitashvili and Kldiashvili.

It should also be mentioned that Zaza Gigauri, Basharuli’s lawyer, states that he intends to sue the investigator to punish him for suspending the investigation.

Saba Tsitsikashvili from Gori