Georgian Public Defender’s Statement

November 14, 2007

The Georgian Public Defender, Sozar Subari, is deeply concerned over the fact that since the violent dispersal of the November 7 demonstration, people with different political views, representatives of opposition parties, activists of civil society and ordinary demonstrators have been persecuted.
Since November 7, the Public Defender’s office has studied many cases concerning the above-mentioned.

The Public Defender recommended the Georgian Minister of Internal Affairs and the Georgian Prosecutor-General to investigate those cases immediately and to react on them according to the law. However, the Ombudsman fears that the cases will not be impartially investigated and consequently he appeals to the President Mikheil Saakashvili and the Chairwoman of the Georgian Parliament, Nino Burdjanadze, to stop persecuting and terrorizing people with different political views.
In parallel, the Public Defender appeals to the representatives of the diplomatic corps accredited to Georgia, as well as international NGOs to urge the Georgian government to stop the persecution of people with different political views in our country.
In addition, the Georgian Public Defender calls upon the Georgian Government to restore broadcasting of those TV and Radio companies whose activities were illegally ceased; these are TV-Radio company “Imedi” and TV company “Kaukasia” and TV company “Channel 25” (in Batumi).

Case concerning Gocha Badzgaradze
Badzgaradze is the chairman of the Imereti office of the Egalitarian Institute. On November 9, 2007 he filed a report with a representatives of the Public Defender. According to his information, a red car stopped in front of him and four masked people, dressed in military uniforms, got out of the car and pushed him into the car without warning on November 8 at 9:30 AM. Then those people made him bow his head so that he could not see where the car was going. Badzgaradze was beaten and threatened with death unless he stopped his political activities and stopped expressing his protest against the government. Later he was left in a strange place with bounded hands and legs.
Some time later he managed to free himself and stood up. He found himself on the cemetery that is located alongside the Tskaltubo-Kutaisi motorway.

Case regarding Shorena Shelia
During the monitoring of pre-trial detention centers, the representatives of the Public Defender met and spoke with one of the female detainees, Shorena Shelia. She said that on November 8, 2007 she had been in a shopping booth in Kiziki Street 7a in Tbilisi where she worked as a salesperson. At midday, the two district supervisors visited her and asked her to follow them to the police station for interrogation because a fine she had received, which she had already paid, was not registered at the bank.

Having arrived at the police station, Shelia learned that she was detained for having attended the demonstration on November 7, 2007; the cameras had recorded her. The policemen drew up a detention document and placed her in Tbilisi Prison # 2 of the Human Rights and Monitoring Division within the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
Case regarding Otar Mujirishvili and Levan Mosashvili
On November 8,2007 representatives of the Public Defender visited Tbilisi Prison # 2 of the Human Rights and Monitoring Division within the Ministry of Internal Affairs where they questioned detainees, Otar Mujiriashvili and Levan Mosashvili.
Otar Mujirishvili stated that on November 7, 2007 he had to meet his friend in Digomi (a district in Tbilisi). As the road was blocked he had to get off the taxi and decided to walk to his destination. He said that near the hospitals, riot policemen attacked him and started to beat him. Then they dragged him to the area surrounding TV company “Imedi” and went on beating him there. Mujirishvili said one of the policemen asked him whether he had a knife and he declined, but the harasser told him “you will have anything in your pocket that I wish you have.” He was handcuffed to a person unknown to him as if he had committed a crime together with him. Afterwards, he was placed in a car and taken to the Didube-Chugureti Police Department.
Mujirushvili had injuries on his body; more exactly: he had bruises on the right side of his forehead, his right eye, head and back.

Levan Mosashvili said that on November 7, 2007 he was in his flat (Digomi Array, 5th quarter, App. 5a, Tbilisi). At about 11:00 PM he heard noise, went out on the balcony and saw a a large group of people (nearly 150-200) who were shouting “Sakartvelo” (Georgia). He went down into the yard where young people were holding bottles, stones and threatened to damage cars of the patrol police. He managed to persuade those people to do away with their stones. Five or seven minutes later the riot police appeared near of the TV Company ”Imedi”; they shot tear gas bullets in the direction of the demonstrators and consequently the people went away. Mosashvili said that he remained in the yard together with several of his neighbors when the riot policemen approached them and started to beat them. He was trying to explain them that he was a representative of the Security Service Department, but it only irritated the riot policemen more. They handcuffed him and took him to a temporary detention center.

Case concerning Vladimer Khutsishvili
On November 12, 2007 representatives of the Public Defender’s office visited Tbilisi Prison # 2 of the Human Rights and Monitoring Division within the Ministry of Internal Affairs where they interrogated detainee Vladimer Khutsishvili.
Khutsishvili stated that he was taken to one of the rooms on the fifth or fourth floor of the Georgian Ministry of Internal Affairs. The policemen turned on the video recordings of the events that took place in Rike (an area in Tbilisi) on November 7. Vladimer Khutsishvili was recorded when he was holding a truncheon. The detainee explained that he had seized the truncheon from one of the riot policemen while the policeman was beating people. As a result, he was beaten for five minutes by five or six policemen  and received various injuries, including his several broken teeth. The attackers were demanding him to tell the names of the people with whom he had been at the demonstration. One of the policemen ordered the others to stop beating me and then hit his head on the glass table, as Khutsishvili recalled. Then, the other three policemen took him down to the hall, sat him in a car and took him to the Main Department of the Internal Affairs in Tbilisi.

Case concerning Elizbar Basishvili
On November 7, 2007 representatives of the Public Defender visited the drug testing facility of the Criminal-Forensic Division within the Ministry of Internal Affairs where they spoke with detainee Elizbar (Kakha) Basishvili. He said that on November 7 at 8:00 AM he was at the peaceful demonstration in front of the Georgian Parliament building together with other people participating in the hunger strike. He had been on a hunger strike for three days. Law enforcers arrived on the scene and started to disperse the demonstrators. The detainee said that policemen pushed him down on the ground and beat him. He has an injury to his left ankle and a bruise on his left leg. Basishvili said that policemen kicked and beat his head. He and other demonstrators did not resist the law enforcers at all. He was dragged to Rustaveli Avenue, pushed into a police car and was taken to the drug testing facility. Basishvili refused to take a drug test and consequently the policemen concluded that he was under the influence of drugs supposedly based on a medical examination.

Case concerning Dachi Beridze
On November 12, 2007 representatives of the Public Defender’s office visited Tbilisi Prison # 2 of the Human Rights and Monitoring Division within the Ministry of Internal Affairs where they interrogated detainee Dachi Beridze. He said that on November 7 at 9:00 PM he was at the bus station in front of underground station “Avlabari” and tried to stop a taxi. At that moment, policemen in yellow raincoats got out of a white bus that was parked nearby. Beridze said that one of them hit him with a truncheon. According to the detainee’s information he did not remember how he ended up in the white bus and was taken to the Parliament where he was transferred into a car of the patrol police; finally he was taken to temporary detention center # 2.
Dachi Beridze has bruises on his head. Policemen stated that the reason for his detention was a violation of Article 187 of the Georgian Administrative Criminal Code.
News Department of the Georgian Public Defender’s Office