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Mentally Disabled Person Sentenced to Pretrial Detention

December 5, 2008

Maka Malakmadze, Batumi

Vano Beridze, the patient of Psycho-Neurological Dispensary has been imprisoned for one month already. He was sentenced to two months pretrial detention term on November 14 by Batumi City Court.

The police brought Vano Beridze to court room with hand cuffs. It is strange from a human rights perspective that the judge did not express interest to the fact that Beridze was wearing cuffs and did not have an attorney to represent him. Moreover, the judge did not ask if he needed attorney or not.

Even thought the prosecutor filed the motion to the court with the demand to sentence Beridze to imprisonment no one read this motion out loud on the trial. The Human Rights Center requested the motion document from Batumi City Court after the trial. It was indicated in the motion that Beridze “was on K. Gamsakhurdia Street, Batumi at about 2 p.m. He tried to steal electro wires from a construction site, owned by Zurab Valiadze which is located on # 48 K. Gamsakhurdia Street. However, he was unsuccessful.”

The judge suspected that the detainee had some mental problems. However, Mr. Shakurlashvili, the investigator reminded the judge about the detainee’s previous prison term and said: “You could not have tried him if he had been mentally disabled. You probably have conducted psychological examination and conclude that he was not mentally ill…”

The Human Rights Center called Ednar Kekelidze, Beridze’s attorney who had been his attorney when he was previously charged.  “Yes, I remember that case. I asked for medical expertise for my client and as a consequence of this the trial was canceled. However, plea bargain was made with my client on next court hearing and mental examination was not conducted,” said Kekelidze to us.

We decided to speak with Vano Beridze’s associates. In particular, we contacted his grandmother. We do not reveal her name because she demanded us not to publish it, and she said: “I was Vano’s mother’s foster but when he was sent to prison for the third time in 2001 I gave up my parental rights on him. Now I live alone. We lived together until 2001. I feel very sorry for him but he is a bit crazy. I was even afraid to stay with him at night. He lived in a night in a shelter after moving from my house. He used to visit me from time to time.

We called to the night shelter Vano Beridze was allegedly staying overnights. Vitali Dolidze, the head of the night shelter told us that Vano Beridze had not been staying overnight in their shelter for several years. Dolidze said he did not know that Vano was in custody. “Poor kid – he is mentally disabled. How could they have sent him to prison? He cannot be held responsibility for his action…”

We also received a document from Psycho-Neurological Dispensary which says that Vano Beridze was registered in their institution on December 2, 1996 and his diagnosis was as follows: “mentally retarded with anti-social manifestations.”

Edisher Makharadze, the Human Rights Center: “According to Article 81 of the Criminal Procedural Code of Georgia a body that leads a case must assign a defender to a mentally disabled person or a person with mental problems. This demand of the law was not followed. Vano Beridze did not have an attorney from the moment he was detained.

According to the Paragraph F, Part II, Article 563 of the Criminal Procedural Code of Georgia it is against the procedural law that a person has no attorney during criminal proceedings. If such violation is observed, and if the verdict against this person is appealed in the higher instance, the court has serious grounds for annulling the decision of a lower court.

The allegation that Vano Beridze has mental problems can be proved by his appearance and action. As a consequence of this the Human Rights Center decided to gain further information about his mental problems. It turned out that Beridze has been suffering from mental problems since 1996. According to the Georgian legislation, the court psychiatric analysis must be conducted and estimated whether Beridze suffers from mental problems or not.  According to Part I of Article 34 of the Criminal Code of Georgia if person is suffering from mental problems, he/she can not be charged.

If Vano Beridze had been previously sentenced, before sentencing, Beridze psychiatric analysis should have been conducted and estimated if he was mentally ill or not.”

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