Presa.ge Got Hold of Expertise Conclusion on Roin Shavadze’s Case

Presa.ge got hold of two conclusions of the forensic expertise – N 1739-111 and N2963/1 on Roin Shavadze’s case; according to those conclusions, the senior sergeant Roin Shavadze, who had returned home from the August war in 2008 two days ago, was initially tortured and then killed.
 
Presa.ge publishes the position of the head of the independent forensic expertise Aleksandre Gejadze about the conclusions of the Adjara regional expertise service of the Levan Samkharauli National Bureau of the Forensic Expertise; Gejadze has worked in the field for 32 years.

The preliminary investigation on Roin Shavadze’s case N170080069 started under Article 260 Part II-“a” of the Criminal Code of Georgia (crime connected with narcotics) and under Article 108 of the Criminal Code of Georgia (premeditated murder); we sent several questions about the investigation process to the department for public relations at the Chief Prosecutor’s Office on March 12 but have not received a reply yet.

We talked with the attorney of Shavadze’s family Ramin Papidze on the phone who is not allowed to study case materials yet. Presa.ge met the widow of the soldier Tsitsino Shavadze who has not been recognized a victim so far.

On August 16, 2008 Roin (Roma) Shavadze was detained by the masked officers of the special unit in Batumi Center close to the Golden Stock; he had returned from the Tskhinvali war two days before. “About 20 masked special unit officers were beating the Georgian soldier who was on the ground. We thought the enemy attacked us again and started to pack jewelry. We were panicked; we even thought they could capture us. They treated him very brutally during detention,” the witnesses told us three weeks after the accident in Batumi.

The wife of the soldier was informed about detention by phone-call. Together with the representative of the public defender the family members were trying to find the soldier all day long. Late at night, the district policemen shouted the Shavadzes from the street that Roma was in intensive therapy at hospital.

When the relatives arrived at hospital, Roin Shavadze was no longer in the intensive therapy; he was already in prosectorium; there were a lot of law enforcement officers near the prosectorium and they banned the family members and relatives to start complaining. The oppression on them turned into a terror several months later – they were offered huge sums in exchange of silence. Otherwise they were threatened with death. Terror stopped after the former public defender Soxar Subari attracted international attention to this case. MP Giorgi Targamadze spoke about the terror on Roin Shavadze’s family and relatives in the parliament of Georgia; the widow of the soldier met the Human Rights Commissionaire of the Council of Europe Thomas Hammarberg and Ambassador of France to Georgia Eric Fournier and informed them about the murder.

It is noteworthy that on the previous day officer of the Constitutional Security Department Giorgi Chikovani (with nickname Maimuna; reportedly he executes the special orders of the former head of the CSD Data Akhalaia) visited Roin Shavadze at home and took him to the CSD office of Adjara autonomous republic; half an hour later the soldier returned back.

The widow of Roin Shavadze recalled: “I asked my husband what was the matter. He replied - “I do no like those people; why they need to come to my house with guns. I was taken to the ministry; a strange man met me there. Maimuna told him: “Here he is, I have brought him.” The strange man replied to him – “Who ordered you to bring him here; what shall I ask him?” Maimuna asked my husband on the way home – “do you know how many people were killed during the war?” Roma was astonished – “how could I know the number of dead people; was I in the war to count the killed people? Why they asked me it; what do they want from me?” Roma told me the officers who brought him back home had guns and spoke with the accent of Eastern Georgia. “Will they kill me?” he said and I asked him worried: “Why should they kill you?” and he replied: “I do not know anything; I have not done anything.”

Before the burial of Roin Shavadze the doctor, who was relative of the family, examined his body. We met the doctor one month after the murder. We do not publish the name of the doctor based on the request of Roin Shavadze’s family members. “22 bullets were shot into him from the front side. He had hematomas all over the body. The left thigh was broken but I cannot say it was because of gun-shot; it was evident that somebody broke his leg; the left hand was cut and then sewed in the middle- the arm was shortened; the right hand was broken; he had a stitch from left to the right ear on the face; there was no bullet-wounds and I do not know why he had stitch on it; apparently he was beaten by truncheon in the face. On the left side of the chin he had about 12 stitches but not because of bullet-wound. On his left hand his two fingers were broken and they were hanging only on the skin. Supposedly, the seventh vertebra was broken; his neck was supposedly broken during detention because Roin was very strong person and he could be attacked only from behind; at least 5 automatic-guns were used to shoot him. Some bullets were shot from the short distance; others were from long distance – I think he was first tortured and then shot.”

The widow of the soldier Tsitsino Shavadze said that 84 bullet-wounds were counted on Roin’s body in total. The director of the independent forensic expertise Aleksandre Gejadze said he cannot comment on the number of bullet-wounds counted by the family members and the doctor. “I can speak only based on the official documents which you have showed to me.”

The expertise of Roin Shavadze’s body started at the Adjara regional office of the forensic expertise initially on August 16, 2008 and finished on October 21, 2008 (.N1739/1–111). Additional expertise started on December 16, 2008 and finished two months later – on February 18, 2009 (N2963/1). Both expertises were carried by Mamuka Metreveli, who has 21-year-long experience in the forensic expertise.

After studying the description part of the first conclusion Aleksandre Gejadze unilaterally declared that it is impossible even to assume the number, distance and direction of the gun-shots. The reason is – the expert has not made adequate and complete conclusion about the bullet-shots. All characteristic features of the bullet-shots are not described properly what could enable the expert to estimate the number of the bullet-wounds; where the wounds were located,

Presa.ge inquired whether this mistake was made by ignorance or on purpose and independent expert replied: “In this concrete case the expert has 21-year-long experience in forensic expertise and you can explain the reason now.”

Commenting on the murder of Roin Shavadze, governmental officials stated in their conversations with us that they doubted Roin Shavadze cooperated with the enemy. He was arrested and during transportation to Tbilisi he attempted to run away and he was killed. According to the expertise conclusion, the place of Roin Shavadze’s murder is administrative border line between Adjara and Guria regions on the Kobuleti-Ozurgeti motor-way. The version of the governmental officials about the murder of Roin Shavadze is groundless for three reasons:

1.    If Roin Shavadze really cooperated with the enemy, why he was not judged properly and then punished as a traitor? Why the investigation was launched for the crime related with narcotic substances?!
2.    How could a person run away from the law enforcement officers when he was brutally beaten near the Golden Stock in Batumi center?1
3.    Let us assume that he really ran away – why the expertise conclusion does not provide information about the direction of the gun-shots?! If the version of the government is valid, then the soldier was to be shot from the back which is not written in the conclusion. The investigator asked the expertise about the direction of the shooting neither initially, nor during additional expertise.

Aleksandre Gejadze thinks that other sorts of injuries on Roin Shavadze’s body are properly clarified in the conclusion. “The expert adequately assumed that there were bruises and hematomas caused by blunt thing. The investigator did not ask the expert in any cases what caused those injuries but the expert stated that they were caused by hitting of blunt hard thing. The soldier could receive those injuring by falling down for example during beating. The investigator did not ask him about it but the expert was not obliged to answer those questions. Since you are asking me now, I will tell you that those injuries could be caused by beating during resistance and in any other case; but it is clear that Shavadze could not receive those injuries by one fall.”

One of the main questions which the investigator asked the expert was the reason of Roin Shavadze’s death. In the first conclusion, it was the third of the total 11 questions – “What is the real reason of Roin Shavadze’s death?”

Aleksandre Gejadze: “In the first conclusion the expert did not mention the reason of Shavadze’s death which is extremely important information for the investigation. I cannot explain why the expertise did not write it but the body was examined in the prosecutor to estimate the reason of death. Everybody knew that the injuries were caused by fire-gun and Shavadze could not die of heart-attack, but the investigation did not hold the official document – conclusion of the forensic expertise – on the death of the soldier for 4 months. It is legal nonsense and not forensic medical; I am declaring it as a person working for the science related with jurisprudence.”

During the additional expertise, the investigator asked 4 questions about the issues he could not clarify during the first expertise – what was the real reason of the death? When did the death occur? Could Roin Shavadze move after the injuries or do something like shouting or speaking? Could Shavadze be conscious after similar injuries and for how much time?

“These questions apparently were important for the investigation because they were asked 4 months later again. The expert replied that Shavadze could move for some time and do something as well; expert meant shouting and speaking; however, I categorically exclude this possibility. Nothing is said in the first conclusion whether Shavadze was conscious or not but expert replied that the expertise could not estimate it.

Based on the expertise data and injuries of the body (on the heart, lungs, liver and intestines) I can unilaterally declare that Shavadze had no chance to be conscious because those injuries are incompatible with life,” said Aleksandre Gejadze.

Expert conclusion N2963/1 states that the reason of Roin Shavadze’s death was “insufficient amount of blood caused by the injuries and numerous bullet-wounds in the inner organs (heart, lungs, liver, and intestines).

Aleksandre Gejadze clarified the number of bullet-wounds on Shavadze’s body was possible to be counted by physical-technical expertise of his clothes but neither family nor the attorney knows whether the expertise was carried out on Shavadze’s clothes; furthermore, they have not seen the conclusions which were gained by presa.ge either.

Attorney Ramin Papidze petitioned to the chief prosecutor of Georgia Murtaz Zodelava in March to take all necessary measures to assist them because the attorney was not allowed to study case materials and because Tsitsino Shavadze is not recognized to be guilty yet. In April the attorney was replied from the Adjara regional prosecutor’s office that preliminary investigation is going on the case and they could answer his questions after investigation finds a suspect.