What the Samegrelo Police Department Searching for in the Apartments of IDPs?!

Nana Pazhava, Zugdidi

On September 8th the Samegrelo-Zemo-Svaneti Police Department representatives searched the apartments of the IDPs living in the buildings of a Dosaapi enterprise. As a result of the search Maveli Sajaia, former employee of the Abkhazia Police Department was arrested. The police found 2 automatic gun clips in his apartment. The IDPs explain that the police were looking for the weapons which were stolen from the office of the MIA Division for Special Tasks situated near their place of residence their apartments. The division building was occupied by the Russian troops during the August war. The IDPs cannot make out why the police are looking for the weapons in IDP apartments and do not bother the division administration members that had left the base and disappeared before the Russians had occupied it.

The police started searching the IDPs at 5 am, September 8. The Sajaia, Chachkhiani, Pertakhia, Pipia, Parulava and Ershba families were searched simultaneously. As a result of the search only Maveli Sajaia was arrested. The police found an American 5.65 caliber automatic, 56 bullets and two clips. Sajaia was sentenced to a period of two month pretrial detention.

Temur Kardava, the detainee’s attorney states that the search was conducted with gross violation of law. It is noteworthy that there are no protocols and warrants for the search of IDP apartments. There is only one protocol on the search of Sajaia’s apartment. Moreover, no one witnessed the mass search of IDP apartments.

Eliso Sajaia, Maveli Sajaia’s wife: “They made my husband and I open the door so quickly that we had no time to put the clothes on. Three police officers took Maveli to a room; one police officer entered a small bedroom to the right. One police officer stayed with me. I told him that as I was half naked to let me put my clothes on. They were ironic and suppressive. We had only two registered shot guns. However, they did not demand us to show those guns. One police officer found two clips under the pillow in the small bedroom. I am sure that he planted them when he was there alone.”

Witnesses did not attend the search in the Sajaia’s apartment. Why? Either because no witnesses were invited to the search or no one was left in the building for inviting as a witness because all the building inhabitants were searched. The police was trying to receive information with all possible methods.

Indira Sajaia: “When my apartment was being searched, one police officer, a man named Kakulia asked me if I saw anyone from my neighbors bringing weapon or something in the house in the last few days. He also asked if anyone from my neighbors earned some money recently. I said I did not know. He said maybe my husband knew from the neighbors. I said no. They could not find anything in my house. However, they made a terrible mess in the apartment.”

The IDPs recall that the family of Arshba avoided troubles with the police by accident. The police attempted to plant drugs to Gogita Ershba, 22. However, they failed.

Gogita Ershba: “Every search in our settlement was organized by Lasha Kolbaia, the investigator from Samegrelo Regional Police.  There were no witnesses to the search that was carried out in my apartment and this was the case in other houses as well. One police officer sat down on a sofa during the search. He left a cigarette box of Winston brand. I noticed this and told him that he was forgetting his cigarettes. He said that the cigarettes did not belong to him. I said, “You were holding them several minutes ago. No one smokes that mark of cigarettes in my family.” I also noticed some dry leaves in the cigarette box. Probably it was marihuana. The argument started. I was insisting that it was the police officer that left the box. To cut the long story short, they could not prove that the box was mine. However, I was taken to the police department. Kolbaia made me write a receipt on staying in the city during the investigation. He said they might need me. They also took my mobile phone and returned two days later.

Official information on how many weapons were stolen from the MIA Special Tasks Division’s base does not exist. No one knows when the base was robbed- before the Russian occupation or after it but the fact is that the Battalion of Rapid Reaction left the MIA base before the Russian troops had occupied the base.

Temur Kardava: “The base was abandoned way before the Russians arrived. How does the government know that the base was robbed by the civilians? Maybe it was robbed by Russians? In any case there are no witnesses. All the soldiers had escaped from the base. Why are they accusing citizens? Everything was taken by Russians. The battalion leaders must be held accountable because the failed to take ammunitions with them when they escaped. Why did the MIA decide to leave the weapons behind at the base when civilians had such easy access to the base and this was even before the Russian had entered the facility to do their looting?”