A Hollowed Fir Tree Lands Man in Jail

Maka Malakmadze, Batumi

Roin Gabaidze, 26 is facing a-five-year term of imprisonment for bringing home a hollowed out fir tree from his personal forest plot. A criminal case was launched against him in April 2007. The defendant’s attorney considers that his client was charged under the incorrect   legal Article.

According to the case documentation, the investigation was launched for an administrative misdemeanor but later the charges were expanded and now Gabaidze faces the charged for theft and for causing serious damage.  

The attorney of the defendant states that the case proceedings declare Vakhtang Beridze, Ltd. “Tsetskhlauris Meurneoba” property guard as a victim but the damage was calculated according to an environmental loss. “If the environment was damaged then the case should have been launched for violating Article 303. The crime envisaged by this article has already been covered by general pardon,” notes Geno Kartsivadze, attorney from Georgian Young Lawyers Association and the personal attorney of Roin Gabaidze.

There are expert findings written by Melodi Dzirkvadze, environmental specialist in the case. The findings raise suspects whether the expert was actually at the crime scene or not as the expert written down that the diameter of the cut down tree was 45, 55 centimeters while the protocol on finding evidence says that the tree diameter was 24, 18 centimeters.”

The case is judged by Judge Vera Dolidze, Kobuleti District Court. The court satisfied the attorney’s request on questioning Melodi Dzirkvadze, environmental expert and Merjivan Katamadze, a witness. “I was looking for my cow. Suddenly, I saw that a fir tree was lying on the plot rented by the Gabriadzes. The tree was broken off by the wind. Later, I met Vakhtang Beridze, a forest guard on neighbor’s funeral repast and told him that Gabaidzes were very poor, their house needed reconstruction and it would be good if he allowed them to take this tree home,” stated the defense witness at the trial on June 3, 2007.

Vakhtang Beridze, a victim admits that he knew Gabaidze was going to take the tree home: “I was told that I tree was broken off in Gabaidzes’ plot. I was requested to give permission on taking the tree home. I said I would check the tree and decide only afterwards. I went to the plot. The tree branches had been cut off and the tree had been cut into 4 segments of 3-meters each in length. The tree had two tops as it had been injured earlier in its life. Much of the trunk of the tree was decayed. Next day I came to Gabaidze and asked him to go to the head of the “Tsetskhlauris Meurneoba”. I said he could buy what was left of the tree for something in the range of 20-25 GEL”.

After this Gabaidze went to his plot and took the tree from there. The defendant himself states he was planning to go to the head of “Meurneoba” afterwards but he was detained before doing so. Roin Gabaidze recalls “The guard told me to take the tree home the next day and not at night so that no one would have any suspects.”

The victim himself does not seek to sue Gabadze in court: “This man did not cut down the tree. The wind broke it off. I saw myself it was broken off by the wind. Under the circumstances it is not worth paying compensation. We did not have any conflict in this regard.”

Ltd. “Tsetskhlauris Meurneoba” owns 13,300 trees. Their overall price is 1,370 GEL. Jemal Tkhiliashvili, the head of “Meurneoba” is amazed by the fact that this one tree created such a fuss.
“Tsetskhlauris Meurneoba” has not calculated the loss, as they do not have specialists for it. The victim recalls that the investigator dictated what the loss was when he was providing a witness testimony in written form: “The police calculated its value on their own and then made me sign the paper where the sum of loss was indicated.”

In fact, Melodi Dzirkvadze, the chief inspector of the Environmental Inspection, calculated the loss. However, Dzirkvadze states that he received a request on calculating environmental loss for two trees: “I personally did not check the scene. There was no such request this time. I was simply given materials and data and I calculated loss according to this data. I was informed that there were two trees; one was 51 cm. in diameter and the other 55 cm. The materials did not say that the tree was very dry or it was damaged. As the trees were in three km. away the nearest windbreak, therefore it had the function of resisting wind and it had somewhat significant role, we granted a high category to the environmental loss and fixed its value to be 1,560 GEL.”

Nugzar Jikidze, prosecutor did not comment on the case. Roin Gabaidze’s court hearing has been cancelled to 24 June 2008. He is charged to having to pay 5 000 GEL in the form of a bail, but as the Gabaidzes do not have this amount of money and they are willing to put up their house.

The Family of Gabaidzes

The ten members of the Gabaidzes family live in the same house in village Tsetskhlauri. They are considered to be the poorest family who reside in the village. “They have debts but when a child comes from their family in my shop I can not help not giving her sugar as I know otherwise she will not drink tea that day. I can see they are ashamed of asking debts and send the girl instead. How can I not help them, explains a shopkeeper who in the same neighborhood as the Gabaidzes

Roin Gabaidze has a wife and a daughter.

The family does not receive social aid as Mamia Gabaidze(Roins’ father) still has the old Soviet passport. He cannot have the new one as his birth month and date are not indicated in the passport. The Gabaidzes used to live in village Khikhadziri, Khulo District. Mamia Gabaidze could have gone to the Khikhadziri Archives and find his birth date and month but this archive does not exist any more. Mamia Gabaidze must pay a-60-GEL fine in order to receive a new passport.  The family does not have this money as well.

The family gets its income from cultivating land plots in Choloki. “I cultivate plots and receive a small salary which saves us only from starvation, nothing more,” says Mamia Gabaidze.

In a 2-storied house, the floor was constructed only a year ago. The walls have not been reconstructed as yet. “My daughter-in-law suffers from tuberculosis. She returned to her father’s family as I had no money to treat her with the right antibiotics. The most terrible for me is that my grandchildren will starve and I will not be able to do anything about it,” says Mamia Gabaidze. “My son-in-law Mamuka Bezhanashvili is from Gurjaani. He used to trade in meat and this was a legal business. He used to sell meat in Batumi. Then he was accused of stealing meat. The police demanded Roin to disclose Mamuka’s whereabouts. Roin gave them Mamuka’s telephone number and address and told them to look for Mamuka themselves. The policemen did not like the way Roin treated them and Nodar Tsetskhladze, a police officer Mukhaestate Police Department promised he would teach him a lesson once and for all.” The family considers that the police officers have kept their promise.

The Gabaidzes also state that many fir trees have been cut down illegally in their village. “There are 12 wind breaks in the village with no fir trees at all. They made such a noise for one hollowed fir tree. One night a local man cut 12 trees and sold them. The Mukhaestate Police Department did practically nothing. They only took an ax away from him and that man is still free.”

The investigation gave what was left of the tree to Vakhtang Beridze, the victim, and in turn gave them to the Gabaidzes, as he trusts them.