About 40 Returned Cars, 2 Land Plots and a Wine Factory – Result of the Government’s Policy to Restore Justice

Commersant.ge

Acting ruling Coalition came in office with the promise to restore justice. Last year, a special department (department to investigate crimes committed during litigation) was established in the prosecutor’s office to restore justice and restitute illegally seized properties to citizens. The Commersant got interested how this institution and the government in general work to restore justice in the country.

The Commersant inquired how many and what kind of crimes were investigated by the Department for the past one year; the department employees 20 persons and aims to investigate ten thousands cases submitted to the prosecutor’s office since 2012.

Since its establishment, the Department restituted about 40 cars, 2 land plots, gold jewelry and business – wine factory Akura to their owners.

 

The founder of the Company Niba Invest Bakur Kiguradze has submitted complaint to the prosecutor’s office about the seized property and crime committed during previous government. The businessman told Commersant that the State purposefully refrains from active steps to drag out the process, make the claims outdated and leave perpetrators unpunished. Kiguradze said that if all cases are resolved, thousands people will be placed in prison that is not in the interests of the government.

“It is not only about seized property but also insulted dignity. People were arbitrarily convicted and nobody was punished for that. In addition to that properties were also seized.

The state refrains from actual steps because crimes are associated with concrete persons. Senior officials, whose orders were implemented by law enforcement officers, are hiding behind those concrete persons,” Bakur Kiguradze said.

Former owner of the Company Magnat Jemal Leonidze is satisfied with the work of the new department. Leonidze said there are positive steps taken in his concrete case.

“The new department works in an ordinary way and I have nothing to complain about it. They are investigating my case not rapidly and in a haste like they did during the previous government, but they are studying my complaint thoroughly, which I had filed in 2011. I assume they will soon finish investigation and I will receive answer in a reasonable timeframe,” Leonidze said.

The Commersant interviewed representatives of the parliamentary majority and nongovernmental organizations about this issue.

MP Temur Maisuradze is dissatisfied with the work of the department. He said very few cases were investigated for the past one year and added that the department has not investigated high-profile cases so far.

“It is very few among those cases which bothered the entire Georgia. Unfortunately I cannot imagine how one institution will investigate all those cases,” Temur Maisuradze said and added that it is incredible that prosecutors, who fabricated so many cases during past years, will investigate the cases now. Maisuradze said newly appointed, young prosecutors are needed to investigate the cases for the restoration of justice.

 

MP Ani Mirotadze thinks the department shall work more actively. The MP expressed solidarity with those people, who claim that justice was restored too late for them. Regardless the fact, the MP cannot blame the department in inactivity, because it is taking some steps towards the restoration of justice.

“When the prosecutor’s office received thousands applications and so many people are waiting for the restoration of justice, restitution of property, how can I be satisfied with the work of the department? However, I cannot say that the department does not work. They have difficult cases – mostly the seized properties now have legal owners. It does not mean that we should surrender. It would be much better if people had received information about their properties timely or had restored them,” the MP said. 

MP Mirotadze said when she is meeting the representatives of the prosecutor’s office, they have arguments including the factors that hinder investigation by interested persons. Another issue is how 20 persons may respond to ten thousands applications of citizens and the MP said that they raised this question when electing the prosecutor and received promise to review the staff policy in the department. However, Mirotadze does not know whether the department kept the promise.

Lawyer Tamar Lukava of the nongovernmental organization Human Rights Center said due to restricted powers of the department some bewitched chain is created in the process of investigation that is almost impossible to overcome. The lawyer said it is problematic that the Department cannot annul the court judgment. The Court has passed verdicts into most high-profile cases and only the court or the commission for the identification of miscarriages of justice can annul the previous judgment; the commission does not exist nowadays. “The Court can annul the previous judgments if new circumstances are identified in the case. If the commission for the identification of miscarriages of justice had been established, it would have had authority to annul the past judgments. The Department mostly reviews cases which refer to the agreements illegally approved by notary. The Department cannot review the cases, where significant violations are indentified,” the lawyer said and added that it is necessary to identify new circumstances, which is very difficult for a suitor, so that the court could revise the old judgments. On the other hand, the investigation is no longer going on because the Court has already passed verdict. Consequently, the lawyer said the cases will be deadlocked.

The former prime-minister Iraklli Garibashvili announced establishment of the new department in the end of 2014.He noted that by February of 2015 the prosecutor’s office would present the action plan to restore justice and to compensate the citizens victimized during previous government.