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Mother of Lost Otar Lazashvili from Khevsureti Region Urges for Help

October 10, 2014
 
Lela Khechoshvili, Kakheti

“I beg you to assist me to find my son. I do not know he is alive or I should mourn over him,” mother of missing Otar Lazashvili from Khevsureti has been requesting assistance in the search of her son for more than a year. 

Otar Lazashvili, 22, from Chumlaki village, Gurjaani district, got lost in Barisakho village, Dusheti district on May 15, 2013. Otar Lazashvili had taken sheep to Barisakho; reportedly he had an argument with a shepherd, whom he told: “Keep the sheep and everything with you; and decided to return home. Reportedly he walked back home but a year and five months have passed and his whereabouts are still unknown. He disappeared near village Korsha, from the pastures of so-called Sabertse Mountain. Dusheti district department of MIA was investigating the fact. As the mother Mariam Lazashvili said the investigation could find neither her son nor the guilty person. So she appealed to the prosecutor’s office; the case was forwarded to the Mtskheta district MIA department.

Mtskheta district MIA department launched criminal investigation under Article 116 of the Criminal Code of Georgia (murder of negligence). However, the investigation did not progress and the mother appealed to the Chief Prosecutor’s Office for the renewal of the investigation.

Human Rights Center interviewed the mother of the lost boy.

Mariam Lazashvili: long time has passed since my son disappeared but they have not yet resolved the case. Having collected some information, I am suspicious about the qualification of the criminal case. Article 116 of the Criminal Code is about murder of negligence. However, circumstances and people related with my son’s case make me thinking that it is premeditated murder. Based on the statistics of lost and disappeared people in Georgia I doubt my son might have become victim of trafficking; maybe somebody used his organs for transplantation; maybe he was killed to cover the crimes committed by other people and to avoid responsibility for that.”

What do you mean by the collected information? Does not investigation have the same information?

I shared the collected information with the investigation but they did not respond. My son had sheep, which he bred during several years. He used to pasture sheep in the fields of Chumlaki village. Although he never damaged anybody’s plots, Gurjaani district administration and Chumlaki village governor categorically demanded him to leave the territory within ten days because locals complained about sheep, which could damage their plots. However, my son used to pasture sheep in the territory of river and did not damage anything. He personally built up dwelling for the sheep. I grew up generous, honest and hard-working son.

When I learned about the argument with the village councilor, I went to his shelter at 3:00 am. I asked him to take sheep to the mountains and avoid controversy with population. He said he did not feel like going to the mountain but could not resist my request and went.

On May 5, 2013 Otari together with two more neighbors and a hired shepherd went to the mountain. On May 9, two more shepherds joined them in Korsha village.

On May 12, my husband Gia Lazashvili visited them in the shelter on Sabertse Mountains. Before reaching the place, he called the son but one of our neighbors answered his phone call. My husband found the neighbor drunk who explained that Otari had left the cell phone with him to charge it. Gia asked him to give the cell phone but the neighbor did not give. Next day the neighbor said he had lost both his and Otari’s phones from the pocket. In the evening of May 13, my son called me and said he had lost cell phones and asked not to worry if he could not call.

On May 16, I learned that on May 15 Otar and my husband had prepared horses at about 5-6:00 pm and intended to go to Korsha village because my husband had to take baggage and Otari wanted to buy a knife. I learned they did not have bread for two days. The shepherd did not allow them to go saying you do not know road and would get lost but my son did not obey and alone went to the village on foot; the father decided to follow him 10 minutes later but shepherds stopped him saying they will find him. Later the shepherds claimed Otari’s trace stopped at the river and could not find him anywhere. Nobody found his body in the river; if they could not find Otari why did not they call the father or me to ask whether he had come home. Why did not they inform the border police, which they had passed by. Why did my husband learn about disappearance of my son only next day when he arrived in the village? Why did he find those shepherds drunken and spend that night in the ruined, empty house of the employer instead the place where they usually spent nights. Why did not police search the empty house, maybe they had my son there at night?

I wonder why my son left them annoyed; maybe he saw or heard something that he was not supposed to see or hear; maybe he was threatened?

I could find him at least with the support of his cell phone but he did not have it with him. Later we found out that they had seized the phone from my son. Afterwards the cell phone was found from where about 100 short messages were sent and then delete. My son lost phone on May 13; on May 14 a message was sent from the number to a woman living in Korsha village by one of the shepherds; they often gathered in the house of the women. This message was helpful for the investigation; I think they forgot to delete it. The investigation had to investigate everything. After my son’s disappearance, the family of the woman sold everything and resettled from Korsha village.

Did investigation search the scene of incident?

No, they did not and I am curious why not. Why did not they convict shepherds at least for the thievery of the cell phone? When I went to Korsha village to look for my son and asked about the phone, they gave me it and said they had found in on the road on May 16. The cell phone was in the field so that sun or rain did not damage it; it did not need charging and nobody could find it either.
The investigation does not progress, the process is dragged out and I am looking forward to meeting with my lost son. I do not know whether he is alive and waiting for help or is already dead and I have to mourn over him. It is very suspicious – my son is neither dead nor alive; he could not disappear without any trace; there is something very special in this fact and I do not know which version to trust.

Which state institutions did you apply to for help and did they respond?
I immediately petitioned to the Chief Prosecutor Kbilashvili, Minister of Interior Garibashvili, chairperson of the human rights committee at the Parliament of Georgia Eka Beselia and presidential candidate Giorgi Margvelashvili, when he visited Gurjaani in the frame of the pre-election campaign; however none of them responded to me. 

Human Rights Center interviewed Jumber Buchashvili, assistant to the investigator at Dusheti district MIA department. Buchashvili said they conducted investigation into the case of Otar Lazashvili’s disappearance but Mtskheta district unit launched criminal case which is still investigating the fact. Buchashvili said they have finished search procedures and the case was forwarded to the territorial sub-unit. Now Gurjaani district unit is conducting the investigation: “We were working intensive investigation process. We spent a day and half to climb up the mountains. Once the mother also accompanied us. Although we once found a suspicious place, where grass was very trampled down, we took a dog there; local inhabitants also helped us but could not find anything essential.”

Human Rights Center contacted investigator Vazha Lezhava at Mtskheta-Mtianeti MIA department and asked for the information about case details; however the investigator refused to give information due to investigation interests. 

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