Police Seized List of Supporters of the Political Movement “Tavisufleba”

Nana Fazhava, Zugdidi

On March 9 a list of 30,000 supporters of the Political Movement “Tavisufleba” disappeared from the Zugdidi-Tbilisi Central highway. Near Abasha distinct two unidentified people stopped the driver of the mini-bus as it was traveling towards Tbilisi and seized the documents from him by force. Regional representatives of the “Tavisufleba” have already appealed to the Abasha district police station to investigate a politically motivated holdup.

The highway robbery occurred on March 9 on the central highway serving the Samegrelo Region at approximately 1:00 PM. Initially, unidentified people called the driver of the mini-bus and then made him to stop the mini-bus near the village of Khamiskuri in the Khobi District. Rezo Archaia, the driver was grabbed and the lists of the party’s supporters for “Tavisufleba” that was in transit to the central office of the party was seized by forced. It was physically in the procession of Tengiz Gergedava, who is the chairperson of the regional organization. However, a half an hour later the attackers realized that they had mixed up the documents and they had stolen the wrong election related materials. The quick thinking driver had intentionally handed them the wrong documents.

However, after realizing their mistake, the thieves quickly organized to correct their first mistake and two men then caught the mini-bus by car in Abasha. They were able to force the driver to stop his mini-bus and to exchange the documents for the ones that they had actually sought to steal in the first place.

Rezo Archaia: “Strange people called me on the phone several times and ordered me to stop the mini-bus. Both of them told me to hand over to them the documents I was supposed to deliver to Shorena Akhalaia, a lawyer working for the party. They mentioned Tengiz Gergedava and this was the person who had provided me the documents in Zugdidi to take to Tbilisi. I became suspicious only after I was called from the office of the “Tavisfuleba” and asked to hand them the documents….”

The members of the political party “Tavisufleba” soon identified the number of the mobile phone, and it belonged to one of the passengers sitting in the transport: 895 94 30 07.  Shorena Akhalaia, the lawyer: “initially said that they answered our phone calls; the person introduced himself as Giorgi Tsanava but he quickly categorically denied any connection with the criminal incident. Several minutes later his mobile phone was turnoff and unavailable.”

Later, the number of the car was identified as well as its color. It was dark red Opel and the official owner of it is Tengiz Chulukhadze, a resident of Chavchavadze Str. 46/3 in Kutaisi. Chulukhadze is an employee of the Criminal Department of the Imereti Regional Police Department.

Members of the “Tavisufleba” claim that the Ministry of Internal Affairs carried out similar special operation based on the information received from bugging phone conversations between the chairperson of the regional office of the political party as well as the party’s lawyer.
Tengiz Gergedava mentioned one more important detail when he made his report about the incident. He told the record of the incoming call that was made between 12:00 and 2:00 PM had disappeared from Rezo Archaia’s mobile phone record.

Konstantine Gamsakhurdia, the leader of the political movement “Tavisufleba” shared his assessment of the incident during a protest in front of the parliament building that same evening. “It is a criminal act that is so much characteristic for of the Georgian Ministry of Internal Affairs. It is an act of violence and an attempt to threaten the people. We will get registration despite such problems and nobody should expect that they will succeed in fighting us… and this operation was implemented by either the Constitutional Security Department or the Special Operative Department/ or any other departments within the Ministry of Internal Affairs,” concluded Konstatnitne Gamsakhurdia.