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General Kobaladze Has not Decided to Sue against the Judgment Yet

January 18, 2010

Ana Sheshaberidze

Attorney of General Koba Kobaladze Gela Nikolaishvili cannot state whether they will appeal against the court judgment or not; whether they will request to discharge the general from the accusation of illegal possession of weapon. Only attorney’s desire is not enough for it; the client should also agree with him. In accordance to the procedural code, the verdict can be appealed within one month after it was announced.

Tbilisi City Court discharged General Koba Kobaladze from the accusation of participation in the Mukhrovani Mutiny. In parallel to it, the court found the General guilty into the illegal possession of weapon and sent him to prison for 8 months and 6 days which he had already served during pretrial detention. Consequently, Kobaladze was released from court room and went home.

The prosecutor requested imprisonment of 13 years and half for Kobaladze. 12 years of it was punishment for the mutiny and 18 months for illegal possession of the weapon.

Kobaladze was suspected under Article 315 of the Criminal Code of Georgia for the attempted overthrow of the constitutional authority. As for the possession of the weapon, the attorney thinks Kobaladze was to be charged under General Administrative Code instead Criminal Code of Georgia. Consequently, he was to be sentenced to 30-day administrative imprisonment or be fined.

According to Gela Nikolaishvili, there were not enough and grounded claiming in case materials against Kobaladze. The accusations were unreasonable.

“In the part of mutiny the court confirmed lack of grounded evidence. As for the part of weapon, Kobaladze does not deny that he had weapon and two dismantled hand-mines. However, he had right on possession and storage of weapon as a general. As for hand-mines, he had kept them since the August war where he served as a reservist and could not hand them in on time. The maximum punishment for them could be fine or 30-day imprisonment,” said Nikolaishvili.

In accordance to the Criminal Code of Georgia, tank battalion deployed in Mukhrovani started mutiny in the morning on May 5, 2009. Ministry of Internal Affairs reported that mutiny was supported by Russia and it aimed to fail the large-scaled military trainings scheduled in Georgia by the NATO. Furthermore, it could aim to overthrow the government. Major-General Kobaladze was named to be an organizer of the mutiny. In the past, he was commander of the National Guardia and resigned in 2004.

The court judgment demonstrated that the president Saakashvili blatantly violated the innocence presumption in regard with Kobaladze and declared him to be a guilty on the day of detention. He added: “We had to pay attention to Kobaladze long before.”

Kobaladze was decorated with all three awards of Vakhtang Gorgasali and he received letter of gratitude from all three presidents of Georgia. Kobaladze actively participated in the inauguration activities of the president Saakashvili. For that, Saakashvili expressed his gratitude.

The court has not announced the judgment yet. The judge announced only resolution part of the judgment. Attorneys are waiting for the motivation part of the judgment where the court shall explain why it was strict in regard with other accused.

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