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The Prosecutor’s Office is Going to Make an Unprecedented Plea Bargain

October 26, 2007

“I will follow this case to the end; I will not forgive my husband’s murder”

“Do not allow the murderers to walk free and commit other murders. Ten criminals are still free and try to bribe law enforcement agencies in order not be to put on trial. I will be forced to sit in front of the prosecutor’s office and go on a hunger strike in order for the state to see what the officials of the prosecutor’s office can do. I hope this can be avoided because of your intervention”, - says Gulnara Zeinklishvili, wife of Temur Tsurtsumia who was killed in Tbilisi two years ago, to the general prosecutor, the president of Georgia, the chairperson of parliament, the public defender and NGOs.

On 29 October, an unprecedented plea bargain may be made between Giorgi Dgebuadze, accused of committing an awful murder, and the Prosecutor’s Office of the Criminal Board of Tbilisi Municipal Court. According to Human Rights Centre’s lawyer Nino Andriashvili it will be a plea bargain which does not have a precedent in Georgia: “The Prosecutor’s Office is making plea bargains on cases involving theft and hooliganism. Besides, interestingly the murder has not been committed by the person accused of the crime. And it was known to Prosecutor’s Office as well. The real criminal was in hiding and we had to help them to arrest the real criminal, because only then they would release the person I was representing. On the above-mentioned case a plea bargain was not made because the defendant plead guilty and was sentenced to 11 years imprisonment.”

This case touches upon a very famous murder which has disturbed whole Tbilisi. On October 15, 2005 in front of Georgian television, at Kostava Street 67, a group of about 12 under age boys invaded an internet café. One of the boys sliced the throat of the owner of the internet café, Temur Tsurtsumia, and wounded his son Levan Tsurtsumia.

“For wounding my son and attempting to purposely kill him, Vitali Kharadze has been arrested and sentenced to the 13 years imprisonment. But law enforcement has not been able to arrest the killer of my husband, Giorgi Dgebuadze, for two whole years. Meanwhile the murderer was freely walking the streets of Tbilisi and he even married, but law enforcement did not take any action. He was arrested on March 9, 2007 and his case was sent to the Board of Criminal Cases of Tbilisi Civil Court. Already two judges have been replaced in the case. Judge Vazha Pukhashvili postponed the court proceedings on senseless and absurd grounds. Prosecutor Nino Zhgenti supported the judge as well,”-declares Gulnara Zeinklishvili.

As Gulnara Zeinklishvili told us, the trial was postponed several times because of the absence of witnesses. The court has decided to force the witnesses to come to the proceedings but this was only a formality: “They were unable to deliver the witnesses, meanwhile the defense was influencing the witnesses and ordered them not to attend the trial. By acting in this way they tried to broker a plea bargain with the Prosecutor’s Office.”

It is obvious that the defense achieved their goal: On October 17 the trial was postponed for the purpose of drafting a plea bargain between the parties within the given period; until October 29.

“We categorically refuse to make a plea bargain with Dgebuadze, but I think that the Prosecutor’s Office will make a plea bargain with Dgebuadze because from May 2007 onwards they have been purposely delaying the case.”-announces the plaintiff’s lawyer, Avtandil Sakvarelidze.

“Dgebuadze’s family sent a close friend of mine to bribe me and the lawyer for the defense offered me GEL 10,000 and added that if I do not accept it I will not receive anything at all. They are already celebrating their victory. So I am unable to do anything against the plea bargain as the law does not give me any right to influence on those brokering the plea bargain I have never heard of a case before where a Prosecutor’s Office makes a plea bargain with murderers. These people are allowed to leave jail early and may commit similar crimes. My son suffers from nightmares. His mental and physical health is at risk. I will see this case through. I am not going to forgive anybody for my husband’s death,”-states Zeinklishvili.

Nino Tarkhnishvili, Tbilisi

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