'Find the Wanted Yourselves and Let Us Know' – Working Method of Georgian Police

Officials from Tbilisi Didube-Chughureti District Police Department stated to Bondo Tsitsikashvili's family members that they can not fight against swindlers. Bondo Tsitsikashvili is a victim from the village of Uflistsikhe in Gori District. Being sure in their failure, the policemen ordered the Tsitsikashvilis to find the wanted themselves and then inform the police. Law enforcers from the capital stated the following: "We can not do anything else".

The point is that in 2002 the Tsitsikashvilis decided to leave for Cyprus. Bondo Tsitsikashvili entered the office next to German Embassy with a tablet on it which read -'Visas'. He asked them to prepare documents to travel to Cyprus.

Bondo Tsitsikashvili stated the following: "Entering the office we spoke with two men - Badri Tsifuria and Beka Gogiberidze. They ran the office and told me that nine hundred dollars were enough to send a person to Cyprus. They said, If we had six hundred dollars that moment they could do it immediately an we could pay the rest later. Thus we paid the money which I had borrowed and later we found out that the documents were fraudulent. Having returned back from Cyprus I was arrested for having fraudulent documents. Tofuria and Gogiberidze were arrested too. However, we all gave explanations and then they released us."

According to the victims, they have appealed to Didube-Chughureti District Police Department several times. They demand to arrest the swindlers and to return the appropriated money back. However nothing has done so far.

Bondo Tsitsikashvili said: "We can not even travel to Tbilisi so frequently to find out the situation. One of the policemen Merab Olkishvili confronted me with the swindlers. They promised me everything would finish well. But four years have passed since then and nothing has changed. Those criminals were released immediately; now they say that can not find them. We protested against having released the criminals from the police station. The Chief of the Police Department answered me that they had no right to arrest them. Nowadays, the criminals have escaped and nobody can find them. In fact, police does not look for them."

Since 2002, the head of Didube-Chughureti Police Department has been changed several times. None of them has investigated the case to the end. Although the Tsitsikashvilis appealed to the General Prosecutor's Office to monitor the investigation, nothing has changed. General Prosecutor's Office sent the case back to the Didube-Chughureti Police Department again, though the victims had appealed against that department.

They gave the appeal to the investigator Gia Rekhviashvili. The investigator told Bondo Tsitsikashvili and his family members that the swindlers left the country. Later, policemen asked the victims to find out criminals' location and inform them.

Bondo Tsitsikashvili stated: 'I found their house but new owners of the flat told me the people have not lived there for a long time. They had moved to Saburtalo District.  But they did not give me the new address. The office is also closed. Saburtalo District is too large to find somebody there. Police does not show any interest to investigate the case. It is evident that somebody protects the criminals."

Saba Tsitsikashvili