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Journalist from Zugdidi Injured in Car-crash Demands Patrol Police Investigators Be Punished

November 13, 2007
Nana Firtskhalava claims law enforcement has covered up a crime. 

Journalist Nana Firtskhalava, the victim of a car crash, categorically demands a criminal case be launched against Demna Sordia, former head of the Patrol Police Investigation Department, and Arkadi Jikia, an investigator. Firtskhalava submitted a special appeal to Regional Prosecutor Ronald Akhalaia in vain. Firtskhalava blames Davit Kekenadze, Judge of the Zugdidi District Court, and his assistant, Nana Antia, Nino Meskhi, the head of the Correspondence Department within the State Chancellery.

The car crash, in which the journalist was badly injured, occurred on June 14th, 2006, on Queen Tamar Street in Zugdidi. A car moving along a parallel street struck Firtskhalava as she was getting on a bus. The impact was strong enough to throw her three meters.

Strangers took the bleeding Firtskhalava to the Zugdidi hospital where she was treated for numerous traumas and bruises. After the initial treatment, Firtskhalava was sent home as renovation work on the central hospital made leaving patients in the clinic impossible. Firtskhalava required 3 months and 18 days of bed rest, was unconscious during the most of the treatment and now suffers from epilepsy.

 “Nobody expected me to survive,” Firtskhalava says. “I was swollen and badly injured. I experienced terrible pain. The injuries caused epilepsy and I now have seizures 8-10 times a month. I still take psychotropic drugs to control them. I am unable to walk long distances. My left hand is paralyzed and is getting black and dead. I have visited almost all the clinics in the western Georgia, tried folk medicine and visited the Neurology Institute in Tbilisi in vain. My health conditions have seriously deteriorated.”

Seventy-one year-old Alfez Tirkia was the driver of the car that struck Firtskhalava. He disappeared immediately after the accident. Although Firtskhalava’s relatives demanded he pay for the treatment, Tirkia refused, saying he was an impoverished person. A criminal case was launched against Trkia under the Georgian Criminal Code Article 276, Section I, immediately after the accident, although it was soon dropped. The charges carried a three-year prison term.

“Investigator Demna Sordia and Arkadi Jikia helped Tirkia avoid punishment and offered him a plea bargain without discussing the issue with me,” Firtskhalava says. “According to the court’s decision, the prison term was changed to bail in the amount of 3,000 lari and the accused was released without having transferred the money to the state budget.”

The injured journalist became actively involved in the investigation process only after her doctors allowed her to get out of bed. She discovered only the record of her interrogation in the case materials. Firtskhalava stated that there were no documents from the scene of the accident in the materials and that the only medical conclusion included was based on a request from the accused and where injuries were estimated as less severe. “I did not agree with the expert’s conclusion,” Firtskhalava says. “The investigators tried to classify the crime under the Criminal Code Article 276, Section I. Under normal circumstances, the accused would have faced a five-year prison sentence. The doctors I had sought were under the influence of the police. They were afraid that I would lie about my medical situation. It took 22 days for them to examine me and they treated me like an animal. Consequently, I was morally damaged as well as being physically damaged. Nobody protected me. They were just waiting for me to die.”

On July 2nd, 2007, Firtskhalava submitted a 22-page brief regarding the now-dropped case and a suit against the Police Investigators to the Regional Prosecutor’s Office. The investigation finally began, 14 months after the accident. The Prosecutor’s Office launched a case against Alfez Tirkia and sequestered his property, correspondence and bank accounts. On August 2nd, Tirkia was arrested. As for the investigators from the Patrol Police, Nugzar Mghebrishvili, the Deputy Regional Prosecutor, informed Firtskhalava that Sorida and Jikia were fired as a result of their handling of the car accident.

“Those investigators were punished under administrative law when they committed a criminal act and I can prove it,” Firtskhalava says. “The Regional Prosecutor’s Office avoids discussing these facts. The investigators neglected and misused their positions of power and protected a criminal by changing the criminal penalty into an administrative one. They were not interrogated as witnesses either.  I have not been able to meet Ronald Akhalaia, the Regional Prosecutor yet, but they have set up an incredible barrier for me.”

“They stated Akhalaia could not be bothered for such an unimportant case,” Firtskhalava continues, “but I maintain that Akhalaia must meet me. Years ago, when the door to his office was nailed up (he was Zugdidi District Prosecutor) and most of society rejected him, I published a letter about him in the state newspaper and faced some problems as a result. I believe Akhalaia is impartial.”

The injured journalist is sure that law enforcement are doing all they can to protect a criminal. Firtskhalava mentioned Nino Meskhi’s name, the head of the Correspondence Department within the State Chancellery, as someone protecting Tirkia. “Nino Meskhi threatened me. She said that unless I kept silent she would lead the court to believe that the car did not crash into me,” Firtskhalava said, “but that I deliberately threw myself under the car in order to extort the money. This would swing the ruling in favor of her relative. Meskhi claimed that I could not make a case against them because she could lessen the impact of evidence against her relative. Thus, I believe that the investigators were obeying her orders.”

Firtskhalava goes on to explain that the accused now has new protectors in the Zugdidi District Court. Nana Antia, assistant to Judge Davit Kekenadze, is a close relative of Tirkia. Kekenadze is investigating the accident case. On August 21st, Firtskhalava attended the trial at the Zugdidi district court, although no one had summoned her to the trial. “The Prosecutor and the Judge apparently supported the accused and he was sentenced to a one-year prison term. The Judge did not pay attention to the fact that the accused had actively tried to avoid the court hearing and was wanted for a long time, or that he had paid no bail nor reimbursed the victim for damages, or that the accused provoked law enforcement officers to commit a crime. The judge has not disappointed his assistant.”

Firtskhalava is the editor-in-chief of the newspaper Kolkhuri Versia as well as the head of the Association of Journalists in Western Georgia. She left the editorial board of the central newspaper a short time ago because she can no longer use her right hand. The doctors speak about the necessity of a neurological operation. Firtskhalava has already received a letter from France where she was offered three months of treatment at a rehabilitation centers. In order to accept the offer, Firtskhalava needs 80,000 Euro, a sum she is currently seeking in vain. She asks anyone for help.

 Nana Fazhava, Zugdidi


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