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Accused in Robbery Have Injured Themselves in Protest

December 20, 2006

sasamartlo_1.gifDedoflistskaro District Court found Giorgi Davituri, Davit Gogolauri and Gela Titilokashvili guilty for robbery. The condemned do not plead themselves guilty. They injured themselves in protest. Giorgi Davituri sewed up his mouth with wire and Gogolauri stubbed himself with rusty nail in his abdomen and tore out his vena. 

The investigation materials proved that on March 12, 2006 at 1:00 a.m. armed and masked robbers attacked Elene Buchukuri in the village of Arkhiloskalo in Dedoflistskaro District. The woman was alone at home and the robbers seized jewelry, various things and 500GEL.

"I was alone on that day. I went to bed at 1:00 PM. I left light on the veranda. It was nearly 1:00 AM the light turned off. I thought the bulb fused out, but soon the light was switched on in the kitchen and I heard noise. I went to the corridor and opened the door. A man in military uniform and mask was standing there. I saw only his eyes. He was holding hunting gun. He grabbed me into the room and shouted to somebody to come in. I could not recognize who he was," said Buchukuri in her testimony.

Dedoflistskaro District Department launched criminal case on the robbery under the Georgian Criminal Code Article 179, section II (a, c). Several days later, investigation blamed Buchukuri's neighbor Giorgi Davituri, Gela Titilokishvili living in the village of Arkhiloskalo and Davit Gogolauri from the village of Samtatskaro for the robbery. 

On the next day of the accused detention, police searched Gogolauri's house again.

"I told the investigator, whether they had come to plant something in the house. Otherwise a robber could not have kept the robbed things at home during three weeks. I heard him telling the officer, that they did not need video and photo cameras…I did not know then that the victim had lost the camera. Thus, they wanted to plant a camera in order to show afterwards that they had found it at home. They did not succeed because I had gathered a lot of people to witness the search," said Davit Gogolauri's wife, Maia Sakanelishvili.

The investigation demanded to carry out odorological and dactiloscope examination. As a result, the trace of the finger prints and the smell of all three accused was found in Buchukuri's house. The accused demanded to carry out the examination again but their demand was not satisfied.

"I have been to Buchukuri's house only once. Both Gogolauri and I saw Titilokishvili at the trial for the first time," said Davituri. Gogolauri said that he did not know the victim at all. Several neighbors witnessed that Gogolauri and Davituri were at home during the robbery. However, neither investigator nor judge interrogated the witnesses. "The crimes committed by Davituri, Titilokishvili and Gogolauri are proved by the testimony made by the victim and the conclusion of the examination. Thus, we did not consider it necessary to interrogate more witnesses," said the investigator.

Sakanelishvili said that there are some more mistakes in the case material besides the fraudulent conclusion of the examination. "When I asked the victim whether much jewelry had been seized from her house during the robbery, she laughed and said that she had lost nothing. However, the verdict states that the jewelry of more than 4000 GEL had been robbed from Buchukuri's house. Besides that, the victim was cruelly beaten by my husband. I told her son to let me carry out the medical examination on his mother to prove whether she had really been beaten, but he refused," said Sakanelishvili in her conversation with Human Rights Centre.

Sakanelishvili mentioned, that she had had a conflict with the investigator because of fraudulent proofs. "The investigator threatened me during the argument that unless I gave up suing, they would change the qualification of the crime and grave my husband's charge even more," said Gogolauri's wife.

Davit Tukhashvili, investigator of the Dedoflistskaro District Police Department, categorically denies the accusations against him. He says: "I am not obliged to give any information to journalists. However, I would tell you that the statements of Gogolauri's wife are fraudulent."

 Shalva Ramazashvili, lawyer of Gogolauri said that there were a lot false proofs in the case material. The accused injured them to express their protest in prison.

"Davituri has sewed up his mouth. He was not taken to the hospital until his health was not seriously threatened. My husband tried to kill himself and stubbed himself and tore his vena out with rusty nail. Until taking him to the hospital, prison officers beat him with clubs and broke his ribs, collar bone and left ankle. He fainted and arriving at the hospital he was bleeding and they were thinking where to take him to hide the incident from the higher instances. My husband went crazy after beating and they got scared and took him to the jail hospital. When I wanted to see my husband they warned me against it since he looked terribly. However, I insisted and visited him in hospital. He was so beaten that I could not recognize him. He has a scar on his face since the childhood and it helped me to guess he was Dato. He has stressful attacks even now," said Sakanelashvili.

Several days ago, Dedoflistskaro District Court found the three accused guilty. The judge, Tamar Chuniashvili, sentenced Titilokishvili to eight years, Davituri to Seven years and Gogoluri to six years in prison. The condemned are about to appeal against the verdict at the Tbilisi Appeal Court.

Gela Mtivlishvili, Kakheti

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