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Law Enforcement Officers Refused to Treat Paata Khokhashvili with Medical Aid

July 7, 2009

Nona Salagaia

“Eagles” of the President are in Pretrial Detention

In the case of Paata Khokhashvili, records pertaining to which are kept in the archive of the Ministry of Defense, so far there were only thank you letters, deeds and medals. Now a charge of coup has raised problems about his previously unblemished career. At one time the President called the Georgian soldiers “eagles” who now are in pretrial detention in the Gldani district. Now these “eagles” have been arrested and law enforcement officers do not allow them to have medical treatment.

Inga Khokhashvili, wife of Paata Khokhashvili who is head of a military unit, came to the Human Rights Center and asked for help. Her first words at the start of our conversation were: “My husband feels very bad. If he does not have medical treatment, he will leave prison as a disabled person. There is the Republic Prison Hospital near the Gldani prison but they even refuse an one-hour treatment. Even if my husband were guilty his health rights should not have been violated”.. She was certain that her husband was not guilty and she had only one request – he should have necessary medical treatment.

Paata Khokhashvili, head of the Gori armored battalion unit, was arrested on May 5 with his soldiers for attempting the Mukhrovani coup. The court sentenced Khukhashvili to a 2-month pretrial detention. His wife claimed that he was locked in the Gldani Prison basement with other heads of units for four days. Khokhashvili’s health was worsened during the August war. After being in the damp basement for four days his health has become even worse.

During the August war an explosive was exploded in front of Paata Khokhashvili and his skull and backbone were injured. Because of the unbearable pain he was moved by military car to the Kipshidze hospital in Tbilisi. He was diagnosed as having a rupture of the backbone. According to the surgeon, an operation was necessary, but after the operation the General could not lift heavy things and he had to stop working. Finally, Khokhashvili decided to have a course of physical therapy course. After the therapy the prognosis is that the rupture will not disappear but he will be able to live a normal life.

Inga Khokhashvili, who worried about health condition of her husband, decided to appeal his pretrial detention sentence. She applied to Merab Tskrialashvili who was appointed as her lawyer according to the law. Inga Khokhashvili said: “The lawyer told me that the next days were the weekend and all nobody would act then. I had to think about hiring a new lawyer after Monday because he did not have enough time to handle my husband’s case. So I thought that a new lawyer would appeal the sentence.”

The sentence could not have been appealed on Monday. The 48 hours allowed for appealing had already passed. The law does not consider weekends in calculating the time for such an appeal, as lawyer Tskrialashvili should have known. Inga Khokhashvili thought appointing such a lawyer was one way state lawyers avoided defending the rights of people who were arrested on charge of coup. 

Now Khokhashvili has a new attorney, Lawyer Tsira Javakhishvili speaks about the violations that were observed since the detention of her client. She hopes the violation of his right to health will attract the attention of international and local non-governmental organizations. That attention could assist them to resolve the problem. “There was no chair, bed, blanket or mattress in the room where my client spent four days. He said it was raining hard while he was in the room and the walls and floor got wet. Prisoners could not sit on the floor or lean against the walls,” said Tsira Javakhishvili.

On May 12 the attorney was allowed to take up the case and visited the detainee. The lawyer described the health conditions of the prisoner in her letter to the prison administration and requested to take her client to the prison hospital. Tsira Javakhishvili applied to the Penitentiary Department for some information. More precisely, she requested the information about the location of Khokhashvili on May 8-13. The reply of the department to her question was very strange – the department did not answer any question of the lawyer. The only thing the department reported to the attorney was the current location of Khokhashvil--; he is in cell N 7 of building N 3 in the detention facility. The administration did not answer the question about the offence of the law enforcement officers.

Tsira Javakhishvili petitioned to the court and requested the release of the detainee under bail of 10 000 GEL, but the court did not grant her petition.

“Although, the petition was based on recently discovered circumstances, the court decided that the circumstances were not enough to reconsider the liability of the detainee. It was very strange because there were already 17 volumes on the case by that time. I could not understand how Judge Goginashvili managed to study the case in such a short time. It could take her several hours just to find out which volumes are necessary to formulate a conclusion,” said Tsira Javakhishvili.

Afterwards, Javakhishvili requested medical assistance for her client but this request also was not granted. The Penitentiary Department considered that the painkillers that were given to Paata Khokhashvili in the cell are enough for his relief. The department cannot see the necessity of additional medical assistance for the prisoner.

“The painkillers that are given to my husband cannot relieve his health problems. His personal doctor told me that he needed to continue physical the therapy that he was taking after the war in August. A liquid is injected into his spine that prevents drying up the liquid in his spine.  And he needs massages and x-rays that continue for 45 minutes. It does not take a long time and the procedure can be taken in the Gldani Jail Hospital in order to assist the young man not to leave the prison as a disabled person,” said Inga Khokhashvili.

The attorney claims the pains cause deformed the body of the general to become deformed.

“When the prosecutor and investigator interrogated him last, they were shocked by his appearance. Finally we succeeded to get the right to send a belt to him. The belt reduces his unbearable pains,” said the attorney.

The doctor said that the patient at least should take Voltarin to be somewhat relieved. “When we petitioned to the prison administration they called us ungrateful. They reproached us for having allowed sending a belt to the prison, for giving painkillers to the prisoner and now we are so impudent to request Voltarin too,” said Inga Khokhashvili.

The wife of the prisoner petitioned to the Ministry of Defense and Penitentiary Department for help but as yet there has be no reply..

Inga Khokhashvili is sorry about the fact that the investigator did not allow Paata Khokhashvili’s 11-year-old daughter to speak with her father on the phone. “I requested the investigator to take my situation into consideration (my daughter lost her sight after the explosion of the residential house in Gori). She must not cry. I requested the investigator to allow the child to speak with her father but he refused. Other lawyers told me that the investigator could make some exception and fix a meeting with family members,” said Inga Khokhashvili.

Paata Khokhashvili has been in military service for 17 years. He was fighting in Abkhazia, South Ossetia and was decorated with many awards. “We never had a private life; Paata was always ready to go to the front. I am sorry that today he is blamed for an uprising in the military base. I had no information about the plotting. However, not only me but even the soldiers had no information about it. Soldiers and officers tell me that they did not know about the uprising and heard about it from the news program. The TV Company reported that they were participants of the uprising,” said Inga Khokhashvili. She believes that her husband will manage to return home from Gldani prison honestly and most of all she wants to see her husband healthy.

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