“Dear journalists,
Georgia is in jeopardy and civil society needs your help. If you don’t support civil society Irakli Garibashvili will destroy it. Tomorrow, Georgian Parliament plans to discuss legislative amendment against civil society which will cause a promotion of ill-treatment and torture in Georgia. This was the main reason we fought against regime of Saakashvili and as a result his government retreated. Today Garibashvili and Ivanishvili who have come to the power with slogan to consolidate civil society, are trying to take away our main achievement- adoption of the rule of witness interrogation in court.
Tomorrow the parliament will review the postponement of adoption the legal draft concerning a rule of witness interrogation in court which will create new “Mamuka Miqautadze” and we shouldn’t let it happen.
The recent history of Georgia has many facts of putting pressure on witness by law enforcement authorities for the purpose to get evidence which was suitable for them. If any of witnesses refused to meet their demands he/she would get beaten to death. When in 2010 the new Criminal Procedure Code came into force the most positive article of it was a new rule of witness interrogation in court which prohibited the interrogation of witness by law-enforcement agencies without court presence.
The mentioned novelty didn’t allow the police and prosecutor’s office to take the witness in police office or in other building for torture. The noted provision was adopted under the pressure on Saakashvili from international organizations and non-governmental sector, but Saakashvili has found the way out and before the new Code of Criminal Procedure was set in force, under the pressure from Saakashvili and Adeishvili the parliament has made amendments in the code, in particular, paragraph 332 in new Code of Criminal Procedure indicates that the enactment of new rule of witness interrogation would be postponed till January 1, 2014. Before Bizina Ivanishvili’s joining the politics, in February of 2012, Kimeridze was brought in Gori Police office for interrogation as a witness, who died after torturing there. At that time Ivanishvili was claiming that the criminals should be punished and such accidents should not be happened any more. After the death of Kimeridze, Georgian Bar Association appealed on the culpability of parliament, which didn’t activated the new rule of witness interrogation, since if Kimeridze was interrogatedin the court he would be alive today. In the pre-electoral period, Ivanishvili and his “dreamer” members were promising the fair trial hoping that only one person would not make decision in the country any more. Unfortunately we believed in them and stayed lied again.
Three months ago , Mamuka Mikautadze was brought in police office as a witness and he ended his life with suicide. He had signs of torture but the former Prime-Minister Ivanishvili didn’t make any statements regarding the happened and forgot the previous statements made 1,5 years ago. It must be noted that , connected with Kimeridze’s case, the former Minister Ivane Merabishvili has released the Chief of the Police, that was commented by Ivanishvili as a retreat of government. All those disasters happening in police offices, was caused by postponement of activation the rule of witness interrogation in the court. After the disclosure of the facts of torturing and killing the humans in police, it was unimaginable for the civil society and for me that there might appear a person openly opposed to the civil society and requested the postponement of activation of the rule regarding the witness interrogation in the court. Regrettably, this person is Bizina Ivanishvili, who doesn’t sleep because of thinking about the society and for creation the fair trial.
On July 3, 2013 according to the protocol (#20) of Georgian Government’s meeting, Prime Minister Ivanishvili has approved the initiative and applied to the parliament , to make amendments in paragraph 332, meaning the postponement of enactment the rule regarding the interrogation of witness till December, 2014. I would like to ask the acting officials: if a witness is interrogated according to the same method and Code of Criminal Procedure, why do you request that an innocent person is to be interrogated in the court? The answer is obvious - before the testifying, you are unable to torture the witness in the court. Is this your democracy? Are these your promises, meaning that the torturing in police would be over? Mr. Ivanishvili and Mr. Gharibashvili, aren’t you ashamed?
The authority of Saakashvili promised the civil society and international organizations, that from January, 2014 a witness would be interrogated directly in the court, as it was determined in the Code of Criminal Procedure. After the initiated of this amendment, I have seen the request of Ivanishvili meaning postponement of the noted amendment. I was deeply concerned regarding this. The TV-Company “Kavkasia” and a journalist Merab Metreveli supported me at that time. Then Ivanishvili stepped back and the parliament could not dare to adopt this amendment. Ivanishvili and Gharibashvili are still thinking about their insidious plan regarding torturing the humans. After the presidential elections, they initiate taking the witness in the police, torture them and then show the testimony at the court process, in order not to retract it.
The whole Georgia watched TV, broadcasting the information how the law enforcement officers handcuffed the staff of city hall, then realized them without interrogation. In accordance with the first part of Article 147 of the Criminal Code, intentional unlawful detention restrictions is punishable by up to two years of freedom, or a five to eight years in prison or to hold office for a term of three years , or by deprivation of the right to work or otherwise it was against the will of their citizens, their illegal movement; law enforcement officers committed the crime provided by Article 143 of the Criminal Code _ the crime of illegal deprivation of liberty of two or more persons, which is punishable by up to seven to ten years imprisonment. Also, the law enforcers committed a crime under Article 333 of the Criminal Code or the abuse of power. It was too much for the government which had come under the slogan of restoring justice. All those persons who participated in the illegal arrest of high-ranking officials have to be sentenced at least for 5 years. The same fact happened in the case of Mamuka Mikautadze, but the corps of journalists preferred to keep silence.
Dear Journalists,
You are the only persons, who can save our country, You have to sound the alarm regarding this legislative innovation and make Gharibashvili to ignore his malicious intent, otherwise we won’t have the chance to save the civil sector. Kidnapping, torturing and raping the witnesses will go on.
Dear journalists, we won’t be interested in the surname of the leader of the country; but we won’t let the non of the leaders destroy the civil society, as you will see well the surprise Ivanishvili has prepared for us. Of course Ivanishvili doesn’t protest this from the civil sector. I apply to all the journalists, support the civil society as it has done by TV Company “Kavkasia” and don’t let the authority destroy the civil sector” – claims Khatiashvili.
