Damage to the State or Persecution for Political Reasons

Maka Malakmadze, Batumi

Zurab Beridze was appointed the head of Batumi Regional Center for Revenues by Zurab Noghaideli, former Prime Minister of Georgia. Today he is accused of abusing his power and having caused damage to the state of 1 437 322 GEL. The attorneys said that law enforcement officers accused him of a crime that was not even committed.

Family members of Zurab Beridze claim he is detained for political reasons.

“I am arbitrarily detained. Mr. Judge. I kindly request you to assign the shortest possible time to the prosecutor to study my case because they are prolonging the process on purpose. I want to apply to all courts in Georgia in order to be able to apply to the European Court of Human Rights,” stated the accused at the first hearing when the prosecutor had requested the judge to assign a reasonable time for investigating the case materials.

On November 18, 2008, based on the information submitted, a preliminary investigation was initiated against Zurab Beridze. The information was submitted to the investigation department of the Office for Revenues at the Ministry of Finances. According to a bill of particulars Beridze is accused of abusing his power. He had caused damage to the state of 1 471 322 GEL.

Zurab Beridze was arrested in his house on November 29, 2008. Before that he had been called to go to the Financial Police to be interrogated. “On that morning, he was getting ready to go to the Financial Police when more than ten armed policemen, dressed in civilian clothes, entered our house. They did not show any permit to enter our house. I have a little child but they did not care about it either,” recalled Khatuna Diasamidze, wife of Zurab Beridze.

According to the bill of particulars, on May 3, 2007 the General Inspection of the Ministry of Finances carried out a raid in the Tax Inspection of Batumi and made a report. According to the report, in 2004-2005 taxpayers had not paid taxes. After that, on May 25, 2007 Zurab Beridze sent a letter to Koba Abuladze, deputy head of the Office for Revenues at the Ministry of Finances in which he wrote: “The Tax Inspection of Batumi discussed the faults described in the report of the General Inspection and the head of Batumi Tax Inspection issued a resolution.” Based on the resolution issued by Beridze, Enver Sirabidze, head of Audit Department for Taxpayers, was put in charge to carry out the audit.

Afterward, on July 2, 2007 according to the resolution N 5 331 of the Office for Revenues, a working plan for Tax Audit was enacted for Tax Inspections, among which was the Batumi Tax Inspection .  According to the working plan, 234 entities were to be controlled in Batumi. However there was a court warrant on checking additional entities as well.

As a result of checking, owners of the enterprises have appealed to the court against the administrative legal act issued by the tax inspection. Currently, based on the court decisions several tens of similar acts were abolished. One of them is the court judgment issued by Judge Gocha Putkaradze at Batumi City Court where Ali Kedelidze is the complainant and the defendant is a representative of the Regional Tax Inspection of Batumi. According to the judgment, resolution N 5041 of the Tax Inspection issued on December 24, 2008 was annulled.

An attorney for the accused, Paata Bolkvadze, stated that “if the court annuls the acts, how can the prosecutor prove that Zurab Beridze had caused the damage to the state of 1 471 322 GEL.”

Lawyers Temur Gogsadze and Paata Bolkvadze represent Zurab Beridze in the court. The first trial was scheduled on May 29 in Batumi City Court. However it was postponed because the prosecutor Anzor Ustiashvili requested a reasonable time to study the case materials. He had taken up the case only on that day. Judge Vera Dolidze granted his request and scheduled the next trial on May 6, though it is a holiday.

Shortcomings of, and Rights Violated in, the Case Materials

Attorney Temur Gogsadze stated that Beridze was arrested through a violation of the procedural norms because neither a detention warrant nor a decision of urgent necessity was produced.

Attorney Paata Bolkvadze stated that “Judge Maka Gvelesiani had already signed the verdict on the punishment of Zurab Beridze because at the trial the accused stated that his date of birth was not written in the judgment correctly. Judge Gvelesiani issued the judgment without reading the records of the trial.”

Attorney Temur Gogsadze said: “The right to protection also has been violated. The accusation states that the detainee read the resolution without an attorney and he does not plead guilty. Judge Maka Gvelesiani wrote in the judgment that he pleaded guilty. Neither state attorney was assigned for the detainee. He is detained arbitrarily because there is no evidence of crime in his activity. The prosecutor blames Zurab Beridze because he did not take measures against the violation. Nevertheless, Zurab Beridze did what he had to do as head of the Tax Inspection. He issued a resolution   to eradicate the faults discovered by the General Inspection, implemented the resolution and in addition there is a list of evidence which states that about 124 entrepreneurs were checked from Spring to Autumn in 2007. That is the time period which is topic of argument with Beridze.”

Attorney Paata Bolkvadze clarified why the rest of the entities were not checked as was provided in the plan. “In February 2008 the reorganization of the Tax Inspection was initiated and the Audit Department of Batumi was abolished. Only six employees of the Audit Department joined the Department for Taxpayers which did not have right to check entities. Consequently, they visited enterprises according to the law for control only in urgent situations.  Urgent cases include such situations asliquidation or reorganization of the entity.”

The defense side has evidence to show that the Tax Inspection had over paid taxes to the budget in the period of time which is in dispute regarding Beridze. “We obtained a time-table of budget revenues of that period and it states that ten million GEL more was paid to the budget than it was planned. This is absurd. Beridze is accused of damaging the state budget while the budget was over paid. We provided this document to the investigation,” said the attorneys for Beridze.

The defense provided the list of employees of the Audit Department who carried out the audit according to the resolution of Zurab Beridze when he was head of the Regional Center of Revenues in Batumi.

The attorneys claim that the investigation is partial. “The investigation carried out the survey only at the Department for Revenues. The expertise was carried out by the same agency that was in violation.”

According to the bill of particulars based on the interrogation of three witnesses, only two of the witnesses are mentioned in the list of the prosecutor. Enver Sirabidze, head of Audit Department is not on the list.

Insufficient Resource and Responsibilities of the Deputy Head

The Human Rights Center compared the lists of employees of the Audit Department made in July of 2007 and in January of 2008. The number of employees in both lists is 27. In the list of July 2007 two employees, Zurab Ustalishvili and Avtandil Kakhidze, had their responsibilities suspended. There are two vacancies in the position of inspector. Two more employees were on business-leave on July 6-7.

On the list of January 2008 there is no vacancy announced. However the situation is more complicated. Enver Sirabidze was on sick leave until January 20. Chief Inspector Nazi Bolkvadze also was  on sick leave until January 24. Zurab Ustalishvili still had his responsibilities suspended. Chief inspector Nodar Abuseridze was fired on January 9. Chief inspector Rezo Vanidze was on holiday from January 16.Five employees were on business leaves at different time. With these resource most of the enterprises were checked.

The resolution N 1341 of the Tax Inspection of Batumi issued on April 29 2005 is also very interesting. It is about sharing the functions of chief employees of the Tax Inspection.  Eldar Varshalomidze, deputy head of the Tax Inspection, was authorized to run and control the Audit Department of tax-payers. He is a relative of Levan Varshalomidze, the chairperson of the government of the Adjara Autonomous Republic.

One more interesting detail: Zurab Beridze was promoted after the date of what he is accused of having done. Zurab Beridzze, head of Batumi Tax Inspection, has worked at this position since September 10, 2004. In February of 2008 he was appointed as the head of Batumi Regional Center of Revenues.