Georgian Judiciary System under Influence of Political Narcotic?!

Madlen Macharashvili

Merab Ratishvili is known among Georgian society as a political prisoner; however two instances of Georgian court found him guilty for drug-addiction and illegal storage of narcotics. He often appeals and urges Georgian society to resist cruel judiciary system. He considers that on July 15, 2008 Tbilisi City Court sentenced him to 9-year-imprisonment because of his political activities. He is not very much looking forward to the verdict of Supreme Court as he knows the decision of previous instance will not be changed. Consequently, one more suit will be submitted to the European Court in Strasbourg since there is no fair trial in Georgia.

Everything started during the protest demonstrations in November, 2007 when law enforcers found a suspicious phone-number (+995 99) 39 88 … (we do not name the full phone number because of journalistic ethic, though law enforcers do not keep the number in secret) in the case materials against Gia Meladze. On October 24, 2008 Tbilisi City Court issued an order on secret listening to the phone number for two months.  The motive for the order was revealing drug-dealers who supplied Gia Meladze with narcotics; supposedly the owner of the phone number was one of the dealers. Merab Ratishvili was the owner of the phone number.

Law enforcers listened to his calls since October 24 till 10:00 pm of October 26. They recorded total 33 phone-calls but got interested only in two calls from one phone-number; there was 40-minute interval between these calls; the motive for selecting these calls was word “sugar” that is used as a code-word instead of narcotics.

What Is the Taste of Subotex?

Attorney of the accused petitioned to the court on several issues though the court did not satisfy any of them.

In his first solicitation the attorney requested to estimate one detail: on the same day several hours before the suspicious phone calls Gocha Dzasokhov, director of Agara Sugar Factory, a relative of Ratishvili, called him; they spoke about the sugar. However, law enforcers did not notice anything suspicious in that conversation. Why not? If law enforcers considered the word sugar normal in their conversation, why they concluded it was a code-word in another conversation? Furthermore, Dzasokhov was joking during the phone-conversation and he mentioned himself as Georgian King Vakhtang Gorgasali (supposedly the reason for the joke was location of his office in Tbilisi that is in Abanotubani, opposite the statue to Vakhtang Gorgasali).  At first sight law enforcers should have had more arguments for doubts in their conversation.

Court did not consider discussion of this issue necessary. A representative of the Special Operative Department (SOD) within the Ministry of Internal Affairs who was a witness at the court was asked why he considered the word “sugar” was a code word for Subotex and the witness replied: “because sugar is white and sweet.” The judge did not protest the absurd reply. Maybe he did not know the real color and taste of Subotex, but the court could check the information and consult with specialists. They could have found out that drug-addicts and drug-dealers never connected sugar with Subotex; consequently,  they never call it sugar for simple reason: it is neither sweet and nor white powder. So, incognito conversation with Ratishvili looks like a fabricated accusation and the word “sugar” was cut out from his conversation with Dzasokhov.

  Where Did Gocha Dzasokhov Disappear?

Another solicitation of the attorney to the court was invitation of Gocha Dzasokhov to the trial as a witness. However, he was not called to the court. Neither our investigation team found him. He disappeared on the next day of Ratishvili’s detention. His phone-numbers are out of coverage area. Employees of the sugar-factory in Agara could not tell us anything about him; supposedly Dzasokhov has left Georgia. It is strange why the court did not consider it was necessary to find out his location; maybe they already knew that Gocha Dzasokhov could not tell anybody-neither to the court nor to other interested people-about his conversation with Ratishvili about sugar. Of course we do not claim but just say that court might have cooperated with those people who wanted to assure people that “sugar” meant narcotics in the conversation of Ratishvili with his friends. The court also assisted those people who supported  Gicha Dzasokhov to disappear.

Court could find out that Ratishvili had really arrived in Agara to take sugar from the factory on the same day-his phone calls could demonstrate it; however, the court did not do it. If the court had checked the phone-calls they could see that telephone mast of MagtiCom had recorded several phone-calls from Agara where Ratishvili had arrived to buy sugar at the factory; and it was not a coded “sugar” as somebody very much wanted to prove.

Police-“MagtiCom”: Fabricators of Falseness 

The court did not reply to the main question: whom did Ratishvili converse with during suspicious phone-calls? Who is the person who was asking Ratishvili for “white and sweet powder” of Subotex? The court did not want to investigate this fact. They did not satisfy the solicitation of the attorney to request the information from MagtiCom about the author of suspicious calls to Ratishvili. So, a person was charged for drug-addiction but court did not interrogate the people who contacted him. What was the motive for the court to accuse Ratishvili for drug-addiction and to issue an order on listening to his personal mobile-phone? The court could not confirm the usage of code-word and the authors of this word.

The attorney Gamisonia provided the court with the information requested from “MagtiCom” which demonstrates that person who talked with Ratishvili about drug (sugar) is an imaginary; the conversation was staged and MagtiCom Ltd is one of the participants (not the only one) of this performance.
We studied the official data about the owner of the phone number 895 4735... and it is in the case materials at the court (the suspicious calls to Ratishvili was made from that number). The data about the subscriber is collected at every service center when a new number is issued; the data contains information from the ID of the subscriber: name, place of registration, personal and ID number.

The materials produced to the attorney confirms that the ID number indicated in the subscriber’s card belongs to one person, name belongs to second person and place of registration to the third person (more exactly to nobody: he is an imaginary person).  All in all, the subscriber’s card is fabricated.

Readers can judge: ID and personal number belongs to Mikheil Khuroshvili, a resident of Gori district who died in 2006 before the MagtiCom issued the phone-number to him; as for the name of the subscriber, it is Mishiko Ketiladze (supposedly, personnel of “MagtiCom” spared the dead person-as it is protected by the Georgian legislation as well - and they wrote virtual name instead of his name; they did not use place of registration from his ID and changed Gori district into unreal address: Alley 216, Ortachala 5, Tbilisi).

Despite the solicitation of the attorney, court did not notice anything suspicious that one of the districts of Tbilisi, Ortachala was indicated in the official address of the subscriber’s registration. An ID of Georgian citizen does not contain the name of a district because people are registered according to official addresses and not according to their districts (like Vera, Kukia, Svaneti settlement, etc). Unfortunately, the judges did not have enough education to notice the mistake.

Attorney Raul Gamisonia applied to the court with one solicitation and like previous ones neither it was satisfied. Raul Gamisonia requested to estimate other numbers where so called Mishiko Ketiladze had called. It could assist the judges to find at least one real person who could help investigation to find the real owner of the phone number. That means, virtual Mishiko Ketiladze could become a real person. At least, somebody was really dialing the number of Ratishvili from anonymous phone.

Court did not consider it was necessary to estimate the person and it reinforced the doubt of the society which claims that law enforcement bodies artificially register so called control numbers with fabricated data on dead people; private companies always assist the law enforcement bodies in similar activities. The subscriber’s card created by the “MagtiCom Ltd” demonstrates similar cooperation. Communication companies have guarantees of inviolability for similar activities and it can be illustrated from the trail of Ratishvili.

If we want to find out who needed to create Mishiko Ketiladze, we should get in touch with Special Operative Department. This department needed a phone call as a proof for the detention of Ratishvili. They had no other official reason for his detention. As readers have already seen their reason was fabricated.

Our investigation team conversed with Giorgi Labakhua, lawyer for the MagtiCom Ltd to find out why and according to whose order the company prepared the false subscriber’s card. The lawyer lied to journalists promising that he would send the reply by mail; however, he did not keep his promise. Evidently, MagtiCom has guarantees of legal inviolability and does not care about the image created by the journalistic investigation.

Other Obstacles

The court did not draw his attention to the fact that protocols on the detention of Ratishvili, and on the search of his car, flat and office are drawn up through violation. These protocols are not signed by witnesses and attorney though Ratishvili categorically demanded their presence. Besides that, the protocol is signed by less people than real attendants were during the search. For example, wife of Ratishvili, who was witness at the trial, recognized one of high-ranking officials from the SOD, who attended the search, but had not signed the protocol. The court did not consider her statement as a proof.

Court did not consider the evidence withdrawn during the search as illegal. The evidences were: narcotic substance “Metadon” in the prick in his car and the same substance from the pocket of his suit during the search in his house.

Court Missed Main Clue

Did the case on Gia Meladze really exist from where the phone-number of Ratishvili was removed and then his phone was listened to? It was the main topic of one of the main solicitations of the attorney. There is completely real doubt that this case was fabricated like a subscriber of the MagtiCom and his card.

In fact, if the investigation needed to create Ketiladze for compromising Ratishvili why could not they create Meladze’s case too? Method of analogy encourages us to have similar supposition.  Furthermore, the prosecutor could not produce a single proof against Ratishvili, for example recording of the conversation between Meladze and Ratishvili. Impartial court would have demanded the case on Meladze, removed the recording of the conversation and would have found out if the voice really belonged to Ratishvili. The court did not do it.

Our doubts are reinforced by one of the documents in case materials – a testimony of Mikautadze, an employee of the SOD. He reported to law enforcers that “Ratishvili’s connection with Gia Meladze’s case is not confirmed.”

Why Didn’t Court Look Into the Eyes of the Accused?

Court passed verdict on Merab Ratishvili on “usage and storage of particularly large amount of narcotics” so that the court could not prove the accused was drug-addict or not. The trial could estimate it through drug-test if they had appointed it. Similar test could show if a person is a long-term drug-addict or not.

Irina Amniashvili, doctor of medical science and deputy director of the Institute for Drug-Addiction, said in her conversation with the investigation team that “Drug test can easily estimate a person has long-term addiction to the narcotics or he has tried it only once. It can be estimated by the pupil of the eye, his movement and even by the veins too.”

The attorney and the accused categorically demanded the judge to appoint the drug test. However, the judge considered the solicitation was groundless. Why? Nobody has right to ask similar questions to the judge.

Case materials cause serious doubt that Ratishvili was not drug-addict at all; even more, he had not been under influence during the detention-he was injected when being detained. The time of his detention is 10:00 pm in the protocol. The drug-test was done at 3:27 am. The court did not inquire why the detainee was tested on drug-addiction so later-more than five hours later. We asked the experts and estimated that in order to detect drugs in the blood of the person, several hours should have passed since the injection. If Ratishvili was under influence during the detention, he should have taken to the drug-test immediately-it is usual activity of the police.

The court should have paid attention to this detail because Ratishvili stated in his testimony that when he was ironed he felt two injections in his muscle; though he did not pay attention to this fact then until the investigation charged him for the usage of Metadon.

Version That Can Exist

The authors of this version are Ratishvili and his supporters. They are sure that Meladze’s case, Mishiko Ketiladze and drugs were motives for Ratishvili’s detention. In fact, authority had political arguments with him because he participated in the organizing of protest demonstrations in November of 2007; he had supported the demonstration financially.  Government wanted to isolate him. Attorney of Ratishvili provided materials to the court to demonstrate the effort of the investigation to create proofs of the political crime of Ratishvili: they took political researches from his office, t-shirts and caps with slogan “By Ourselves” from his house. Then these materials were sent to the counterintelligence. Anyway, they could not get enough proofs to blame him for high treason and cooperation with Special Forces of foreign countries; so they changed the charge against Ratishvili before the trial. Evidently, the aim was to isolate Ratishvili and court had to cooperate with the order-maker in regard of drug-addiction.

This version does not belong to the investigation team but we think it has right to exist. Furthermore, after studying the case materials, person will get sure in the validity of the version.

P.S. The journalistic investigation was already finished when the team was called from “MagtiCom Ltd” and reported they had a reply to our question. Misha Jighauri, lawyer for the company, explained that “demographic data of the subscriber is registered in data-base based on the information provided by the dealer,” however, this explanation is not enough to prove the innocence of the company. Dealer of “MagtiCom” is an employee of the company and s/he issues the number based on the same rule as it is estimated for entire communication field in the state-based on the ID of a real subscriber.

Lia Toklikishvili, Leader of Journalistic Investigation

Investigation was carried out within the project "Monitoring of Judiciary System in Georgia"  Implemented by the Human Rights Center and Newspaper "Sitkva"

supported by the "Eurasian Partnership Foundation"