“Lomidze Was Interrogated Without Attorney and He Plead Guilty Under Oppression”

Gela Mtivlishvili, Kakheti

Investigator of the Kakheti Regional Police Department finished the investigation on Vano Lomidze, member of the Republic Party and head of the district office of the Alliance for Georgia. Lomidze is accused for denouncement and slander; the crime is punished by 8-year-imprisonment. During the preliminary investigation Lomidze pleaded guilty. He said he had burnt his car because of PR campaign of the party though according to the spread information at the moment Lomidze does not plead guilty and intends to make the statement at the trial. Vazha Varadashvili, attorney of the accused, supposes his client will be oppressed because of changed decision before Kvareli district court discusses his case.

Incident in Kvareli

A leader of the Republic Party Tina Khidasheli reported that their party member and head of Kvareli district office of the Alliance for Georgia was attacked at 12:40 am on April 28, 2009. Khidasheli said strange people attacked Vano Lomidze when he was traveling from Tbilisi to Kvareli. He was planning to take supporters of the opposition parties to Tbilisi.

“Vano Lomidze was traveling to Kvareli by his car. A car chased him and asked to stop. Two strange people in masks dragged him out of the car; beat him ruthlessly and threw him into the channel. Lomidze’s car was also pushed into the channel which later blew up. Afterwards, attackers left the territory. Vano Lomidze managed to crawl up to the central way and called patrol police which arrived there late,” said Tina Khidasheli on the same night.

Vano Lomidze said in his conversation with us: “Four people attacked me on the roadway. They were shouting “We have warned you, haven’t we?” they did not say anything more. I was pushed out of the car and thrown away in the channel. Then they beat me and burnt my car,” he said.

Several days before the incident, Lomidze was living in the cell in Tbilisi.

After the incident Lomidze was taken to Kvareli district hospital. Doctors said he did not have serious injuries, just minor bruises.

The Kvareli district police department started the investigation on the incident on the same day. Gela Lazashvili, Gurjaani district prosecutor, reported that the criminal case was launched under Article 187, Part II of the Criminal Code of Georgia that envisages premeditated damage of other person’s thing; however, later the charge was changed and the case was sent to Kakheti regional police department for investigation.

Giorgi Sibashvili, deputy governor of Kakheti region, made first comment about the incident in his interview with the correspondent for the Radio Hereti. “Sibashvili told me he did not know who had burnt the car but added that Lomidze was drunk during the incident,” said Roman Kevkhishvili, former journalist of the Radio Hereti.

“Nobody has beaten Lomidze. I think it was provocation; the fact that Lomidze was drunk in hospital also proves our suppositions,” said deputy regional governor several hours after the incident with the Kakheti News Center. He added that expensive car of Lomidze was ensured.

Vano Lomidze assessed the statements of Sibashvili as nonsense.

“Sibashvili is lying when claiming that I was drunk and I burnt the car. I have not drunk alcohol for four years already. When the second official in the region is making similar statement, I cannot hope the incident will be investigated impartially,” said Lomidze two hours before the detention.

Tina Khidasheli requested interrogation of Sibashvili

Before Lomidze was arrested Tina Khidasheli gave a press-conference in the office of Republic Party regarding the incident in Kvareli. She assessed the attack on Lomidze as political revenge and requested interrogation of Sibashvili.

Tina Khidasheli mentioned the reason of her request. According to her, when Vano Lomidze was attacked, he initially called Davit Usupashvili and then called patrol police at exactly 12:49 am. However, as Khidasheli said, journalist of Radio Hereti interviewed Giorgi Sibashvili about the incident at 12:43 am; that means five minutes before patrol police was reported about it.

Khidasheli said Giorgi Sibashvili reported to the Radio that he did not know who had burnt the car but added that Lomidze was drunk.

Sibashvili Denies Accusations of Khidasheli

Deputy regional governor Giorgi Sibashvili denies the accusations of Tina Khidasheli, leader of the Republic Party.

Sibashvili said he had learned about the incident from the correspondent of the Radio Hereti late at night of April 28.

“When the journalist of the Radio Hereti called me it was 12:42 am. I told him I would check the information. Then I called him back at 1:02 am and told him supposedly Vano Lomidze was drunk. We also doubted that he had burnt his car for provocation,” said Sibashvili.

MIA: Lomidze Pleaded Guilty

Ministry of Internal Affairs spread information about the incident in the evening of the same day.

“Although the investigation is not finished we would like to provide the society with some details. There is a witness in this case who states that on April 27, from 11:00 pm to 11:30 pm Vano Lomidze bought two liters of petrol from him.

“Expert-criminalists found a bottle near the burnt car and the scene of accident. The expertise of the bottle exposed that petrol was in the bottle. A finger-print was taken by the expert-criminalists and it belongs to Vano Lomidze.

“Investigation also found out that Vano Lomidze’s car was ensured at Aldagi BCI,” it was reported by the MIA.

On April 29, two days after the incident, the MIA spread information that Vano Lomidze had pleaded guilty. In his testimony to the investigation Lomidze said he had burnt the car.

“I was a single mandate candidate of Republic Party in Kvareli district in the elections of 2008. I needed PR everyday so I created stories that somebody was beaten; somebody was robbed, etc. I thought I could get use of this situation and burnt my own car. My purpose was to publicize myself,” said Lomidze in his testimony to the MIA.

After this testimony Lomidze was charged and Kvareli district court sentenced him to two-month pretrial imprisonment.

“Lomidze Was Interrogated without Attorney and He Made Testimony under Oppression”

Members of the Republic Party state Lomidze made testimony under oppression.

“Before detention finger-prints were taken from him though he was neither accused nor witness. Before the MIA spread the information about his confession, location of Vano Lomidze was unknown for several hours. Later we found out that he was in Telavi police station. Attorney did not attend the interrogation of Lomidze,” said Sopo Khorguani, member of Republic Party.

Kvareli District Court Shall Discuss the Case

Relatives of the detainee stated that law enforcers had promised Lomidze to impose a bail if he pleaded guilty. However, as it was above-stated the court sentenced the detainee to two-month imprisonment. Lomidze is still in prison. Vazha Varadashvili stated they have already appealed to the court and requested to change the penalty but in vain.

“Health conditions of the detainee have worsened during the detention and we requested the court to change the sentence. We offered the judge to impose a bail of 5 000 GEL on Lomidze l. However, we soon withdrew the petition from the court because we were informed = the court would not satisfy our appeal. In this case, we could lose the right to petition to the court for the second time,” said the lawyer.

Attorney added that case materials were already sent to Kvareli district court for discussion however the date of trial is not fixed yet.