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Gori Law Enforcers Detained Mentally Disabled Young People

May 10, 2007

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On March 3, Archil Surameli and his close relative, Zurab Djanelzashvili, were detained for thievery. They were blamed for having stolen plastic frames of billboards in Gori. Both of them own certificates from the Gori Psycho-Neurological Dispensary. Archil Surameli has “mental disability, slight behavioral pathology on moronity level”; as for Djanezashvili, he complaints of “psychic nervousness accompanied with organic hallucinations caused by injury and dysfunction of the brain.”  (Photo: Surameli’s grandmother, Nazi Djanezashvili)

Both detainees were bailed for 6 000 lari each. As they could not pay the bail the boys were sentenced to two-month pre-trial imprisonment. At the moment they are in the prison.

Surameli’s grandmother, Nazi Djanezashvili, informed the Human Rights Center that her grandson has psychic nervousness and has once attempted to commit a suicide.

As Zaza Svianadze, a lawyer for the detainees said the law enforcers demand the detainees to sell the house in order to pay the bail. Archil Surameli does not have house at all. He is lodged in a ruined building where he lives with his grandmother in a small room. Their only income is a pension he receives for his mental disability.

Nazi Djanezashvili, despite her poverty, borrowed 2 000 lari while preliminary investigation was being carried out. She urges the Prosecutor’s Office to accept that money as a bail.

The prosecutor, Kakha Muradashvili, who is personally in charge of the case, does not make any comments on the case.

Nazi Djanezashvili does not exclude the possibility that the prisoners might injure themselves in the prison. She recalled the day of detention. Archil was at home when their relative Zurab Djanezashvili visited them at home. “Zuriko was holding plastic things in his hand and asked Achiko to follow him to install them in his booth. Achiko followed him and soon the police detained the boys,” said the grandmother.

Lawyer Svianadze said that law enforcers detained the boys near Djanezashvili’s booth. It is located near the Gori Civil Police Department. Then the policemen took the detainees to the billboard and wrote a record as if they had caught them on the scene of crime.
The lawyer said that Djanezashvili picked up broken plastic frame of the billboard from the ground and took them home.

The lawyer mediated to the Court and the Prosecutor’s Office on reducing the sum of bail but his mediation was not satisfied. “These boys are still arbitrarily detained and it might end with tragedy,” said Zaza Svianadze.

Zurab Sadzaglishvili, Gori Deputy Prosecutor, said in his conversation with the Human Rights Center, that “we are waiting for the conclusion of medical psychiatric expertise and cannot discuss the bail yet. We doubt that the prisoners must not be released and they must be placed in psychiatric hospital.”

Sadzaglishvili said that they are very sorry for these people; however, it is fact that the expertise is suspending the time and detainees have to serve their term.

  Thea Tedliashvili, Gori

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