“Let’s Encourage Murderers”

Mitigation of the penalty for Girgvliani’s murderers annoyed society

Goga Khaindrava: “Now everything depends on the dignity of society; how will people put up with similar dishonesty. I predict that Saakashvili’s government will finish its activities shamefully. It is terror and society cannot put up with terror.”

Several days ago Georgian Supreme Court mitigated the penalty for Sandro Girgvliani’s murderers. Cassation Court sentenced Geronti Alania to the imprisonment of seven years and six months instead of previous eight years that was passed by the Appeal Court. Aleksandre Ghachava, Avtandil Aftsiauri and Mikheil Bibiluridze will serve 6 years and 6 months instead of previous seven years.

On July 27 Criminal Chamber within the Supreme Court discussed the cassation suits of victims Irina Enukidze and Levan Bukhaidze as well as the suit of Davit Khazhalia, the lawyer for the accused without court hearing. The principal demand of the victim party was to return the case to the lower instance, Appeal Court; however the Supreme Court made a decision to mitigate the penalties of murderers in six months.
Cassation Court dropped criminal persecution on condemned under the Criminal Code Article 187, Section I because they consider verdict cannot be based on assumption. The verdict must be passed based on valid evidences.

The decision caused serious concern of the society. Shalva Shavgulidze, the lawyer for the Sandro Girgvliani’s family, said in his conversation with the Human Rights Center (HRIDC) that the decision of the Supreme Court is groundless and illegal. He said that whereas both preliminary investigation and court discussion in the first and second instances were carried out partially, one of the demands of the victim side was to return the case to lower instance of Appeal Court to discuss it again.

 Shalva Shavgulidze: “Supreme Court did not satisfy our demands. They considered that investigation and court hearings on Girgvliani’s murder were carried out impartially and did not change the verdict. They found it legal to qualify the crime as injury and not a premeditated murder. The injury resulted into the death. You do not need to be a perfect lawyer in order to guess that similar decision is illegal and unfair. Sandro Girgvliani had 12 wounds only in the neck and the court medical examination concluded that those wounds were dangerous for life that resulted into death. When similar wounds are not qualified as premeditated murder how can the verdict be considered legal and fair? Then what is premeditated murder? – Not twelve wounds but thirteen wounds are serious crime? It is ridiculous. We have famous cases when simple, safe wounds were qualified as premeditated murders.”

Shalva Shavgulidze said that several days ago Supreme Court published text-books and sent to lower court instances to use them in common judicial practice. “How do you think does the Supreme Court have moral right to send text-books to lower court instances while they qualify twelve wounds as a simple injury when it is committed by the officers from the Internal Ministry and tenuous injury is considered to be a premeditated murder when it is committed by an ordinary person?” said lawyer for Girgvlianis.

Shavgulidze said that they had never expected the Georgian judicial system to be fair. “We have already appealed to the European Court and after Supreme Court’s decision we will add one more suit in our appeal regarding the violation of the convention.”

Press-Service Center for the Supreme Court stated that “the lawyer’s demand to return the case discussion to lower instance is illegal and it is not envisaged under the law.”

Tina Khidasheli, a member of the Republic Party, said that everything became clear from similar decision. She thinks that additional comments are not necessary either.

“Supreme Court had several reasons to pass similar verdict and we observed some violations in the process of passing the verdict. First of all, the process was conducted in secret and the lawyer for the victim family learned about the court decision from journalists. It means that the Authority is very much afraid of Girgvliani’s case. They dared to violate law and did not inform the lawyer about the trial. Nevertheless the process was conducted without hearing; according to the law, the lawyer should have known whether the Supreme Court had discussed the case. There are many black spots on Girgvliani’s case and the government makes more and more mistakes day-by-day. The recent verdict is stark example of the situation. Supreme Court made strange thing. They had two cassation suits-one from Girgvliani’s family and another from the accused side. The court discussed and satisfied the last one. However, the judge did not mention the suit of Giorgvliani’s family that will be another valid proof according to which Strasburg Court should pass right verdict. ”

Goga Khaindrava, a film-director and member of the “Egalitarian Institute”, said that the government sent two messages with the verdict: one to the society and the other to its co-thinkers and killers.  

“In the first message the government states that they would not pay attention, respect and protect the human rights unless those people support and work for the governmental party, National Movement. In the second one they encourage criminals to do everything nobody will punish them. It is systematic fulfillment of the promises that were given to those murderers in order not to give away the names of those people who ordered the murder. Now everything depends on the dignity of our society and how will people put up with such dishonesty. I predict that Saakashvili’s government will finish its activities shamefully. It is terror and society will not put up with the terror.”

Nino Tarkhnishvili