Dear Ms Olga Cechurova
Thank you for your message.
The situation of the political prisoners in Georgia really is alarming. The first difficulty is that somehow it is hard for the international governments and organizations to admit there exist political prisoners in Georgia. Also the attitude of some human rights organizations is rather peculiar. The representative of the Human Rights Watch/Helsinki, Tbilisi mission, refused to visit Mr Bichasvili because "a hunger strike is extremity" (from the letter of Helena Lebedeva, Russian Duma, today).
Please, do send me your fax number so I can mail you my documents.
Mr Kvirtiya died one day after I visited him in hospital, on May 18, 1999. During his 7 years» imprisonment he got no treatment or medicine for his tuberculousis or other illnesses. He was 24 years old.. Kvirtiya is just one example, there are tens of others in prison camps, such as Zaza Kiria
and Zasa Chicovani (Rustavi camp), Gela Nanadze and Givi Ioramashvili (Khoni) and 9 prisoners in Ksani prison camp. They all have declared hunger strike, because they believe they don»t have any other weapons left.
I use the opportunity to enclose a tape statement of Dr Konstantinidi, the defense lawyer of Mr Petre Gelbakhiani, MD, a political prisoners who is today in the middle of Tbilisi, in Ortachala prison, isolation section. Petre was sentenced to death in 1993 but later on it was changed to 20 years imprisonment. The trial was absolutely false. Also three other jurists gave me their statements willingly, testifying how illegal and fabricated the trials of Georgian political prisoners have been and and still are.
I emphasize that Dr Konstantinidi is not so-called Zviadist but a lawyer obeying Shevardnadze»s regime. In Tbilisi I got an impression that even the supporters of the government cannot tolerate the situation anymore. Only Americans seem to close their eyes continuously.
Mr Gelbakhiani is a close friend of mine, not a criminal at all. His father, Dr Gedevan Gelbakhiani was released in April, 1999, after 7 years in prison, where he was tortured and beated several times. Dr Gelbakhiani was a professor of Tbilisi University, a head master of the Medical Institute. Also his case was false.
There are reliable evidence and documents more than enough, acceptable in any western court room, on the human rights violations of Shevardnadze»s regime. For 7 years now our organizations, together with the British Helsinki Human Rights Group, Dr Mark Almond, Ms Catherine Stone (bhhrg@bhhrg.org ), IGFM/Frankfurt and Munich (fax +49 089 871 39 357 /Ms Wanda Wahnziedler or Mr Wilhelm H. Ludwig) and Mr Sergey Kovalyow, MP of Russian Duma, former Human Rghts Councellor of Duma (secretary Ms Helena Lebedeva, fax + 7 095 292 4050) etc.
Also I enclose the mail I got from Dr Lia Beruashvili from Tbilisi. She and some other human rights activists in Tbilisi have recently founded a new organization. Ms Beruashvili can give all the details necessary to investigate the real situation of the political prisoners in Georgia.
I have researched Georgia since 1978 and spent months in the country. I was an eyewittness (together with Dr Soili Nysten-Haarala from the Lapland University , the faculty of law) on the first putch in October 1991 and a correspondent of my News Agency was the only foreign journalist in Tbilisi when the final coup started before Christmas of 1991. We have published two books trying to explain the Georgian case.
Best wishes,
yours sincerely
Aila Niinimaa-Keppo
The Finland-Georgia Society (founded 1989), Chairman
The Finnish-Caucasian Association (founded 1994, Vice chairman)
Tel + 358 9 1354 188, fax 1354 199
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Exact tape translation
STATEMENT of Dr OREAGI KONSTANTINIDI, Jurist
Defence lawyer of Petre Gelbakhiani, Georgian political prisoner
Statement given in Tbilisi on June 15, 1999:
"Greeting Mr. Lauri Lehtimaja , the Finnish Ombudsman, and refering to his visit to Georgia I am giving a statement to Mrs. Aila Niinimaa-Keppo concerning the case of Georgian political prisoner Petre Gelbakhiani, MD.
I am Lawyer Oreagi Konstantinidi, I am the member of the College of Advocates of Georgia * body analogous of The Bar, transl * ; I happened to work as an advocate * defense attorney, transl * in the case of Petre Gelbakhiani and others.
Supreme Court on March 6, 1995 passed a verdict concerning Petre Gelbakhiani, who was declared guilty according to the articles 78, 17-67, 17-104 of the Criminal Code of Georgia. Petre Gelbakhiani was sentenced do death.
Impression I have got from the participation in this trial is not very good. The trial was conducted by the Supreme Court, Judge Dolidze was presiding, and a number of due-process violations were allowed. Besides, the very essence of the case was interpreted wrongly, Gelbakhiani was declared guilty groundlessly. Moreover, the punishment used against Gelbakhiani at the moment of committing an alleged crime was abolished.
Let me explain: Both the prosecutors charges and then the Supreme Court»s verdict asserted that after Zviad Gamsakhurdia "lost the power", literary "lost the power" (and nothing else happened), some other people came into power, exactly - the Military Council. On February 21, 1992, this council restored in Georgia the Constitution of 1921. The article 19 of this Constitution states, that the death penalty is abolished. When restoring the Constitution of 1921, the Military Council stated that the laws which were in contradiction with this Constitution were abolished. In this case the death penalty in the Criminal Code of Georgia at the moment of the committing of the alleged crime was in contradiction with the Constitution.
Despite this Petre Gelbakhiani was sentenced to this punishment. Moreover, then this punishment to Gelbakhiani was commuted for 20 years imprisonment, i.e. person was sentenced to the not existing punishment and then as if he was excused and given 20 years, whereas the longest term in the Criminal
Code was 15 years. So for the present moment Gelbakhiani is sentenced to the term which exceeds by 5 years the longest term according to the Criminal Code at the moment of the crime.
As a whole, the trial, as I have already mentioned was conducted with continuous violations. I tell continuous because there were a great number of them. Mainly these were the due process violations, which were committed either deliberately or due to the low professional level of the judge and the prosecutor. Of course the case vas appealed but the verdict was left unchanged. Hence, for the very orientation of the Supreme Court - the highest legal authority of Georgia - the verdict based on the various rude in my opinion due-process violations was acceptable.
I could enumerate just a little part of the violations committed on trial. I say little because the relatively long period of time passed since the verdict - more than 4 years - and naturally I don't remember all of them by heart. I will recall and explain some of them connected to the violation of law.
There is a principle which is taken into account apparently by all states - the principle of publicity.
The principle states that (and it was in the Criminal Procedure code then and it is now) all trials are open except some special cases which are enumerated. From the very beginning of this trial some strange lists were made. The motivation was that there is not enough room in court and only two relatives of each defendant can attend the trial. This kind of attitude is the rude violation of law, because it was possible to find appropriate place - even out of the court building. I know it is possible because I myself have participated the cases which were hold in some public places, where up to 800 people could attend the hearings, so there was nothing unnatural about that if the hearings were transferred to some other building. So after the protests of the advocates * defense attorney, transl* and the defendants all wishing to attend were admitted, but during the consideration of this issue one of the prisoners - Gogichaishvili - raised the question about his cousin who was denied an access to the court.
He was given an explanation that there are no free places left. Gogichaishvili counted free places - there were 10 or 20. When he second time turned the attention of the court to this issue, he was simply expelled from the court. This man simply demanded do admit his relatives to the court and also asked to provide him some hearing facilities, for example a loudspeaker - he complained of a damaged hearing - in order to understand what is going on there in court. This was the reason why he was expelled from the court - it was considered as the violation of order in the court.
This caused the protest of other defendants. Naturally they supported their friend and the conflict between the court and the defendants arose. Besides Gelbakhiani, there were sentenced many people. I don't remember exactly, about 40 - 45, in the so called "Kvareli Case". Kvareli is a place in Georgia, there in the forest these people were gathered. There was also Mr Gelbakhiani as a medical doctor, and the group was armed. In the documents of this case exists following testimonies of the local policemen. ``These people called us, we met and they told us the purpose why they were in the forest: "We want to disarm the illegal armed group "Mkhedrioni", their arms we will hand over to you, and after the restoration of the legitimate government it will decide on this people and these arms."
These people * i.e. defendants transl. * were sentenced not taking into account the above-mentioned testimonies. There happened in the forest also - once they happened to be without any food. Several people were sent for bread. They went to the restaurant and brought some food - actually the remainder of food - which was about 63 rubles worth as I remember, a few tomatoes, about 0.5 kg of cheese and the same amount of meat. Gelbakhiani was not there - he was just sleeping when they went there. Gelbakhiani was charged with this episode as a banditry.
The case was divided into two separate cases: Domukhovski, Gelbakhiani, Dokvadze and some others find themselves in the separate case, but the most of the guys, who were in the forest was sentenced earlier than Gelbakhiani and others. Naturally Gelbakhiani and other co-defendants demanded that
they were given the possibility to learn the materials of this "Kvareli Case", because in both - "Kvareli Case" and the case we are talking about - Dokvadze was mentioned as the commander of this armed group and Gelbakhiani as his deputy. So the "privates" were trialed separately and sentenced to
the various punishments and now the "commanders" are trialed. Naturally these "commanders" demanded the materials of that previous case in order to learn what they are accused of. They did not get the materials. The motivation was that the "Kvareli - Case" and the present case of the terrorist act and banditry are absolutely different cases, which is wrong, of course. It follows from the materials of both cases. It is possible to compare them and even non - specialist could understand that there were
interrogated one and the same people, they were asked the one and the same questions, and they were accused of one and the same deeds but separately. The separation of this cases was incomprehensible.
Nevertheless the court "popularly" explained that this was different case and the defendants could not demand the materials of other case.
Petre Gelbakhiani, as well as others, during the trial were left without defense, without legal defenders. This I the rudest violation of law, which always causes the abolishment of verdict. In general the institute of legal defense implies that person according to his will, freely, without any coercion chooses the legal defender, decides with him on the lines of defense, coordinates his actions and positions, and a legal defender provides the legal advise for all of this. Gelbakhiani is a well-educated person, a person with the highest education, highly developed person and he was able to defend himself, to choose the position, and I as an advocate, as a legal defender was obliged to explain this to him from the point of view of the law and provide him the help in legal matters.
Nevertheless, it happened that Gelbakhiani was left without the legal defender - I will explain it later, how it happened - and not only Gelbakhiani, but others too. Moreover, if one looks at these materials -
they still exist, this letters in archive - one could think that Judge Dolidze who was presiding on this court was certain that he had right to choose and appoint the legal defender without defendants consent through the Presidium of the College of Advocates, or through it's chairman, if more precisely. One could find the demonstration of this in the letters addressed by judge Dolidze to the Chairman of the Presidium of the College of Advocates of Georgia Vladimer Baratashvili where he * judge transl* asks to send advocates Jandieri, Peikrishvili, Kutivadze, Goksadze, Baghaturia, and so on. Hence, he enumerates the names of advocates whom he finds admissible to trial.
On April 27, 1993, for instance, Dolidze asks Baratashvili in written to appoint the advocate Tengiz Nizharadze a legal defender of the defendant Zaza Tsiklauri and prepare relevant order. At the same time on the trial Zaza Tsiklauri and advocate Nizharadze stated that they have not rich an agreement - there were 5 or 6 points. Advocate Nizharadze asked to release him from this task due to the discrepancies with the defendant. As a result Nizharadze (I know him personally, he is well-educated advocate and the man of high principles, father of three children) was just expelled from the College of Advocates of Georgia and as far as I know he lost the job, at least he is not practicing law.
Defendant Makhviladze expressed the will to be defended by advocate Lashaberidze and the relevant deal was officially signed. When Lashaberidze came to court with all necessary papers, the presiding Judge expressed his disapproval and without any explanation denied her the access to the trial and Makhviladze was left without legal defense.
Something apparently unexplainable happened also to me: On January 28, 1994, Gelbakhiani released me from duty to defend him and asked to find him another advocate, precisely, he asked his mother, Nutsiko Tatishvili to find another advocate. On February 15 1994, Nutsiko Tatishvili annulled the deal with me (she was the author of this deal) and started to look for another advocate. On February 16, - the next day - I asked to release me from duty to defend Gelbakhiani. Court, violating the law, decided to oblige me to defend Gelbakhiani. I refused and mentioned to Judge, that decision was lawless. This lasted for two days, and after this he prepared an usual "ordering" letter to the presidium of the College of Advocates asking them to appoint me as an legal defender of Gelbakhiani. The chairman agreed without hesitation and I was ordered to continue the legal defense of Gelbakhiani.
I could not find it possible to resist further, because advocate Nizharadze had already been expelled, as I have already mentioned, then another was expelled - Jgamadze - who was restored then after several years. The same thing was threatening me if I would start to protest and refused the commission of the Presidium of the College of Advocates - I was risking my job. Gelbakhiani reacted on this situation normally, yet he reserved the right to state, that he has an inferior defense. So, this was the situation
I worked in willingly or not.
Further, at the end of the trial when I should have the final defending speech, I met Gelbakhiani who asked me in the civilized way if it was possible for him to make this speech. I said that he had this right. He did not say anything more, but it was clear to me what he meant: He had got some kind of doubts too - the person was appointed against his will. I was in dubious position and Gelbakhiani had the full right not to trust me. I was sitting on this trial against his will, appointed by someone else.
I checked everything out and finally before the speech (there were about 200 people in the court, among them the representatives of media) I asked the presiding judge: "What I am supposed to fulfill - the will of Gelbakhiani or your commission?". He answered immediately: "Our commission." Then he made correction "the commission of the Presidium * of the College of Advocates, transl *".
I don't know, what kind of speech I made, what kind of impression I made on the Judges, or on the audience, but I am certain, that if there was not this situation, the legal defense of Gelbakhiani would have been much better, taking into account his considerations and the cooperation. It happened so that Gelbakhiani was acted on alone and I was acted alone.
Advocate Kapanadze found himself in the same situation, when he defended Zaza Tsiklauri after Nizharadze: Tsiklauri refused to accept him, Kapanadze himself said it was impossible to defend a person against his will, but all the same - he was appointed according the court request.
This kind of deviations from law can not be put in some frame - this is just a rude violation of human rights.
More: At the final stage of trial I stated that I had a petition. In these cases an advocate must be given the opportunity to explain, what kind of petition it is, what are his arguments, evidence etc.. The judge asked what it was about. I replied that it was about his and the prosecutors rejection. This was enough to turn down the petition without any discussion. Why did I wanted to reject the presiding judge and the prosecutor was not interesting for court, but according the law it is necessary to consider this kind of petition carefully, no matter whatever unpleasant it might be and only then to make any decision, which must be well-motivated.
The advocate of Dokvadze, Giorgi Movsesjan, also was denied the possibility to publish the petition where he tried to prove that the case must be return to the pre-trial investigation in order to correct the rude violations allowed by the prosecution. This was also left without reaction.
And now the Partiality of the judge: After this story, when he denied advocates even to publish their petitions, the prosecutor stated that he demanded to continue the trial which had been already closed, because there were lost some document from one of the volumes of the case. The petition of prosecutor was immediately granted. So sides were unequal. By the way, the same prosecutor demanded the death penalty for Gelbakhiani and Dokvadze - the punishment not existing at that moment.
Domukhovski was left without any kind of legal defense. He was defended by Nizharadze, (the very same who was then expelled, he was defended both Domukhovski and Tsiklauri). Besides, Domukhovski was defended by his wife Rusudan Kikaleishvili who also was expelled. In the same groundless way was expelled the public defender Khoshtaria - by the personal decision of the
presiding judges, which was also the violation, because the decision of all judges needed - if Khoshtaria violated something.
The declaration of verdict - also with rude violations of law. Declaration of the verdict to Gelbakhianitook 8 hours. There usually is everything in verdict the arguments of the court, basic evidence and so on. So in the court from which all the defendants were expelled, the declaration of
verdict took 8 hours. On the next day the verdict was declared to the prisoners: Petre Gelbakhiani, Dokvadze, the father of Petre Gelbakhiani - Dr Gedi Gelbakhiani etc.. And this declaration took 15 - 20 minutes.
One can enumerate a great number of violations analogous to this - I can not recall now them all, after four years. There were some paradoxical ones - when the court wrongly estimated the evidence. Concerning Dokvadze - there was some scheme attached to the case - the scheme of the remote control by means of which the car was exploded. On the trial Dokvadze testified, that during the pre-trial investigation he was forced to draw some kind of scheme. On the next day the investigator, apparently after consulting some expert brought scheme back and said: "It would not work, draw another" - all this is from the testimony of Dokvadze on trial: "I drew another. It is the scheme of alarm for the car. The
scheme in the case is not for the remote control". Dokvadze demanded to bring any kind of expert from whatever place who would assemble the remote control by this scheme and asked to put him on the powder cask which should be tried to detonate by this remote control. The paradox is, that the court
dropped this episode, by no means allowed the invitation of qualified experts, and invited Borashvili - the man who to my knowledge worked in the system of communication of KGB of Georgia, was questioned and although he has not seen any details of this "remote control", he talked to Dokvadze
and stated on trial, that Dokvadze was right, when he "confessed" to the investigators, that he committed the crime. So Borashvili turned to be not the expert on detonating devices, communications or radio-signals , but an expert on "psychology" who stated with authority that "Dokvadze is right",
although Dokvadze himself denounced his own confession.
Another paradox is connected to the identification of Gelbakhiani by means of the photographs. There were witnesses, Tatjana Kashuba, Mikhail Kashuba, Mamedov, Pereguda, and the photographs of Gelbakhiani were produced to them for identification. The legal procedure involves the producing of two other photographs along with Gelbakhiani»s ones. It turned out that the photographs of Gelbakhiani were larger in size than others. When we started inquiries how did it happened, we the advocates of the defendants were given the explanation that because of the situation in Georgia ("there was shootings, the photo-laboratory of the Ministry of State Security") they did not managed to increase the size of other photographs, i.e. the photographs of Gelbakhiani they managed to increase, but not others. It was easy to do it anywhere in Tbilisi without any laboratory, any photographer
could have done it.
There are this kind of "evidence" in the case, when the witness Tatjana Kashuba testifies, that she saw from her home, trough the window on the third floor the unknown persons, and then, when the photographs were produced she said: "I identified this person by the shape of mouth, eyes, the color of the eyes and etc.." It would be more natural to show her the backs of the heads of Gelbakhiani, Dokvadze and others for identification, it is hardly imaginable that person from the window of the third floor could distinguish and remember the shape of the eyebrows of unknown person. Moreover, both Mikhail and Tatjana Kasha identified by photographs certain Bokuchava, as the person who bought their car and after two days, when Bokuchava was brought to the personal identification among others they did not identified him. The personal identification of Gelbakhiani was much more important but it did not been conducted. - The witnesses were living in Ukraine at that time and their address was known. Apparently Ukraine
did not refuse to send them for the identification for the couple of days, but
court groundlessly avoided this issue.
I repeat: the Criminal-Procedure Code demands and the deeds of the prosecution and the court during this trial were totally different. It took place either deliberately or out of lack of the professional qualification of those who decided the fate of this people.
What now? This worries me, that the person was first sentenced to the non-existing punishment, and according to the Constitution, then after some time the death penalty was commuted by the presidential decree for 20 years, so that 5 years were added to the longest possible prison term.
Of course, our president is not lawyer, but in his surroundings must be some qualified lawyers, who would explain him what is going on, otherwise it turns out that by the presidential decree it is possible to increase the punishment term.
This is what I could briefly say about the case of Gelbakhiani. As regards the essence of the case - the terrorist act - under no circumstances, on any stages of pre-trial investigation or trial itself Gelbakhiani never testified that he has anything to do with the terrorist act. Very dubious are the confessions of Dokvadze and he testified on trial that he was forced to say on pre-trial investigations that he and Gelbakhiani committed this act. Gelbakhiani himself never testified that he participated this act. He admitted, that he was in the Kvareli forest along with others, in order to disarm "Mkhedrioni" and to restore the Government, which was overthrown by certain people. On this background, all this verdict and the fact that Gelbakhiani is held in prison, seems to me as the rude violation of human rights. Apparently those lawyers who are dealing now with the reforms and are in the surroundings of our president have to take care in order to avoid this kind of cases in the future.
I thank you for your attention."
* * - translators remarks
Translator (from Russian) Merab Kiknadze (physicist, Moscow University, Helsinki, Finland), tel. + 358 9 340 53 50
22.06.99.
For further information please contact
Dr. OREAGI KONSTANTINIDI,
Lawyer of the Cheigureti district of Tbilisi, Georgia
Tel. + 995 8832 39-79-22
Address:
Nutsubidze III
Nierodistrict, Build. 8, Apt. 27
38005 TBILISI
Georgia
The Finland-Georgia Society,
Ms Aila Niinimaa-Keppo, tel. + 358 9 1354 188, fax + 358 9 1354 199,
e-mail: a-n@promin.pp.fi
--------------------------------------
Draft (Report on a visit to Georgia, June 12-16, 1999)
To: IGFM and Human Rights Organizations Worldwide
Georgia Needs Urgent Help!
I returned from Tbilisi on June 17, 1999 and brought with me the following appeal of political prisoners, among many other alarming documents. Before I complete my official report I feel it necessary to write some of my impressions without delay.
The human rights situation in Georgia is more than terrible, many of the political prisoners - called Zviadists - are in critical condition and the prisons and hospitals are beyond all human thinking. There is no constitution at the moment, because the regime of Eduard Shevardnadze does not know whether it is the one they adopted from 1921 or the one they made in 1995, most trials are artificial, accusations full of lies etc. The clemencies of the political prisoners are postponed time after time because "the new court system is under construction".
I have on tape the statements of three lawyers, who describe the illegal and absurd situation of the political prisoners. The new Ombudsman, Mr David Salaridze, former KGB chief of ideology, does not care of the political prisoners at all, but at least he admitted there are political prisoners in Georgia! Shevardnadze and his American supporters don»t admit even this fact. The opposition told me there are five colonies for politicals "Zviadists" in the country.
Besides all that, there»s tuberculosis raging in the country. I visited one tuberculosis hospital in the middle of Tbilisi and my experience was absolutely awful. Underweight patients were just lying in their beds without proper treatment or medical care. One young man, 24 years old Mr Kvirtiya, got tuberculosis in prison; he was arrested at his age of 17 only because he was a member of National Guard. So far he has got nor treatment neither medicines, he is going to die very soon. He survives just because of the help of IGFM members, special thanks to Ms Lali Lomadze. The head of the hospital - doesn»t want his name revealed because of becoming revenge - has told all drugs sent from abroad were somewhere else but not in hospitals, stolen, sold etc.
The hospital I visited was one of the worst I have ever seen in my life, and I have seen terrible Soviet hospitals before, a lot.
(One cannot help asking: Georgia has got western humanitarian aid worth of millions, maybe billions. Where is it? Where is for instance all the money coming from the United States? Also the attitude of other OSCE countries, especially Finland, is rather peculiar. Recently one representative of the Finnish Red Cross described how he had been repearing mental hospitals in Georgia for eight months. He told that the buildings were practically in ruins, there was no heat, water, drugs, not even food for the patients, because nobody has financed hospitals the since the coup 1992. The odd thing is this engineer reported as if the Georgian government had nothing to do with the terrible situation of the hospitals, as if Shevardnadze»s regime had a full right to live outside of the reality of Georgian people!?)
Interesting new crimes were revealed to me: ie. the illegal adoption of Georgian babies is increasing fast, headed by Mrs Nanuli (alleged by the members of opposition ), a lot of casinos from Islamic Turkey and Azerbaijan have been moved to Christian Tbilisi and the money washing is going on. Also the international narcotics business continues strong.
On the other side the infrastructure has become worse, there is no hot water at all and people get cold water just occasionally, electricity problems are daily, most streets are like after bombarding, the government fixes nothing. Policemen haven»t got their salaries for months (like most of the people who happen to have a job) and they stop drivers all the time asking for money ... People are afraid all the time like during Stalin»s era.
... And this was only the capital, the situation in the country side is worse. Because there is no money - not even for food, people haven»t been able to repair their houses or to take proper care of the farming etc. since the coup of 1991-92.
These are only minor details, most important case is the human rights violations and the fact that international humanitarian aid goes to the accounts of Shevardnadze»s foundation - what ever it is - or to some other mysterious accounts. Nobody takes care of the poor, sick and unemployed people anymore. The fact is that in once so frourishing Georgia there are no middle class citizens anymore, only very poor and very rich. The average salary is 14 laris (1 lari =0,50 dollar, in 1995 =1,25 dollar), but - like said before - it takes months to get it. Only the people working for foreign (mainly American) firms get their money in time. Educated people, teachers, doctors, scientists, former professors... have to sell their property or newspapers in the streets etc., or to hire their homes for foreigners just to survive. What to do when the last peace of furniture has been sold?, one phycisist wondered to me.
I find it a bit disgusting that a representative of the human rights organization of the Canadian Church (so I was told) lives today in the big flat of one political prisoner, a tortured prisoner who was just released from prison camp! All the accusations against him were fabricated and the whole trial a fars. His only crime was that he had supported the government of former president Gamsakhurdia.
Everything mentioned above is happening before the very eyes of the US Government. It is very hard for the civilized western human being to understand that. Also it is most confusing and terrifying that U.S. State Departement has on April 30, 1999, listed "Zviadists" among 40 most wanted terrorists groups of the world !!! This kind of a statement coming from anybody, not to mention the native country of the International Human Rights Declaration, is strongly against logigal thinking - and when it comes from State Department it is a crime. (See: http://www.state.gov/www/global/terrorsm/1998/eurasia.html#Georgia)
A name Zviadist was created by Shevardnadze»s regime after the coup 1992 and basicly it means just a supporter of Georgia»s first democratically elected president and parliament! When Shevardnadze found out how easy it was to convince his western supporters of a criminal character of Zviadists (read: Shevardnadze»s huge opposition) he didn»t hesitate to do it. Since then all his attempted murders - real or artificial - has been crimes of Zviadists.
For the first time in my life I hear that the supporters of democracy, people who just had used their right to vote freely, are called terrorists on an official report. There is something very wrong in State Department.
With a minimun of common sense one can understand the great majority of the population cannot be criminals! But if I»m wrong, I hereby make a confession to avoid misunderstanding: I am a Zviadist, too - among hundreds of other human rights activists, journalists, researchers etc. all over the world - including Russia where Mr Sergey Kovalyov, MP, is working for the Georgian political prisoners meanwhile their American colleagues keep silent.
THE CASE OF MR GURAM ABSANZE
Mr Kovalyov»s main worry today is Mr Guram Absanze, the former Minister for Finance of Gamsakhurdia»s government. Mr Absanze has been taken prisoner for the second time, first in 1992 and later 1998. Mr Absanze is accused of partisipating in organizing and financing a terrorist act against Shevardnadze in February, 1998. His charges are high treson, deliberate murder, banditry etc. etc. Also he is once again accused of the events happened during the coup in 1992 (after coup he was eight months in prison with several bullits in his body - and of course without proper treatment, not even drughs for his diabetes. He was released in August 1992 after Shevardnadze»s amnesty. Last year Mr Absanze was arrested when he came to Tbilisi to negotiate with government. His trial has been a mere fars, like most of the trials in Georgia. I recorded the statements of Absanze»s lawyers; both (Mr Baratashvili and Mr Jangirashvili) made it certain that - according to any law - Mr Absanze is not guilty of just being a pol
itical figure. The whole case doesn»t make any sense.
THE CASE OF MR NEMO CHANTURIA
A Georgian political prisoner, Mr Nemo Chanturia, is going to die! His condition in prison hospital is critical and he needs urgent treatment. I know him personally, Mr Chanturia is not a criminal, he has never committed any crime. His case was supposed to be taken into the considering of a judge more than three weeks ago. When his case was questioned on June 15, 1999, the judge said he does not know anything about it and he will investigate the case later when he»s got time.
I implore all Human rights organizations to investigate the human rights situation in Georgia and urgently help Mr Nemo Chanturia. Georgia needs no innocent victims anymore. I know perfectly well my information is different from the main stream media or official governmental reports, but I assure you, my information is correct. The truth is easy to find out - if only there exists good will: visit Georgia and meet the members of opposition, just read the court documents, ask new and different questions. The fact is that majority of the correspondents and official representatives are not even willing to face the reality of Georgia, because they might find out that they had been fooled by their own governments - not to mention Shevardnadze»s regime full of communist nomen clatura and KGB officers.
THE CASES OF GEDEVAN AND PETRE GELBAKHIANI
Dr Gevevan Gelbakhiani, MD, PhD and a professor of the Medical Institute, was released in April, 1999, after 7 years in jail and prison camp. He is in considerable good condition considering all torture and beating during his imprisonment, but he cannot hear properly. The accusations against Dr Gelbakhiani were absolutely artificial and the trial violated all possible international standards.
Please, put your attention to the fact, that at the same time Shevardnadze released also Mr Tengiz Kitovani, the former member of the so-called Military Council which ousted the legal government, parliament and president on a violent coup in 1991-92. Mr Kitovani was one of those "three demorcats" who - according to the western media - beated the dictator Gamsakhurdia. When Shevardnadze, the inspiror and organizer of the coup, returned to Tbilisi in March 92, he changed the name of Military Council to the State Council and took all the power into his own hands. For 4 years Kitovani was in power with Shevardnadze as a foreign ministry. When Mr Shevardnadze didn»t need Kitovani anymore he threw him into the prison. (Shevardnadze didn»t need also the rest of his comerades, Mr Jaba Ioseliani, his former right hand, a convicted murderer and the vice chairman of the State Council, and Mr Tengiz Sigua, PM and the fourth member of the State Council. In 1995 they all were kicked out of the "government". Jaba is still
in prison - in excellent condition, ruling his own empire as hi likes - and Sigua is working as a professor at the Tbilisi University.) It goes into records that the criminal regime which took the power in Georgia on an armed coup was without questions invited to the OSCE Conference in Helsinki in 1992! According to the own Charta of the conference OSCE supposed to be the body for democratically elected Parliaments, only.
Maffia boss Jaba Ioseliani and his criminal group Mkhedrioni ruled Georgia - as official police forces! - from 1992 to 1995. Jaba was even a leader of the Georgian delegation in Geneva UN Human Rights Conference! When trialed he was accused of several political murders. The international press, the same that strongly supported artificial democrats instead of the legally elected president - hasn»t put any attention to the fact that they - after all - were criminals, just like the supporters of the legal government time after time tried to tell them.
Dr Gelbakhiani»s son, Petre Gelbakhiani (Medical Doctor, born 1961, father of two kids who had seen their father only as babies), is in jail - in horrible Ortachala»s GKB isolation section! - Petre was sentenced to DEATH on March 6, 1993, but after international appeals his sentence was changed to "only" 20 years in prison. PETRE WAS ACCUSED OF MURDER ATTEMPT OF JABA IOSELIANI! According to all documents and evidence Petre had nothing to do with this attempt, his trial in 1993 was totally illegal. The only reason Petre Gelbakhiani and his father had been kept in prison, tortured and beated by the illegal regime, is that they were and are supporters of the legal parliament and presidnet of Georgia. I was refused to visit Petre Gelbakhiani for the second time, my next attempt is going to be in October this year during Shevardnadze»s third election.
I managed to visit this awful prison Ortachala in 1995 as an observer on Shevardnadze»s second election show. The Human Rights Councellor of the Georgian Parliament, Mr Alexander Kavsadze, told me that only Americans can give me the permission to visit Petre. No reason was given, why. The experience was something I wouldn»t ecpect to see in a state accepted to the member of the European Council! Mr Givi Kvarelashvili, the manager of the prison, seriously told me there are no political prisoners in Georgia at all, it is only a rumour. I managed to leave other observers - there was a performance going on taylored for international election observers:
"a prisoner votes" - and to take a good look at the surroundings. I assure you: Ortachala is not meant for humans! It is in the same condition it was during Stalin»s era. The deputy boss of the prison joined us - my interpreter and me - after a while. When I asked him where they keep their political prisoners, he answered: "We keep them mainly in prison camps. But we don»t call them politicals but Zviadists."
Please find enclosed the text of the statement I recorded before the ears and eyes of several witnesses when I was in Tbilisi. It is the statement of Dr. Konstantinidi, Petre Gelbakhiani»s lawyer. The statement proves without doubt that even the law and justice are only instruments of Shevardnadze»s regime (= the words of Dr Otto von Habsburg in his letter to the Finnish-Caucasian Association in 1995).
Please, address your messages to:
Mr G. Parulava
The Head of the
Hospital of the Ministry for International Affairs
380018 Tbilisi
Georgia
or directly to
President Eduard Shevardnadze
pr - kt Rustaveli 8
380018 TBILISI
Georgia
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Written on June 21, 1999
by Ms Aila Niinimaa-Keppo,
Editor, Chairman of the Board of
the Finland-Georgia Society and a Vice Chair of the
Finland-Caucasian Association
URGENT APPEAL FROM POLITICAL PRISONERS OF GEORGIA on 15 June, 1999
TO ALL HUMAN RIGHTS ORGANIZATIONS AND WORLD MEDIA
After the military-criminal coup d' Ztat in the Republic of Georgia Eduard Shevardnadze»s regime have dealt severely with the representatives and supporters of the legal government. Since the years of 1991/92 many of them have been killed, tortured and detained.
In the Summer of 1992 a representative of the National Guard, Mr Revaz Brozeli, was arrested and executed without any tribunal. In September a supporter of the legal government, a teacher of mathematics, Dr Vakhtang Gogsadze, was tortured to death in the Kvareli police department. During his beating police officers broke his collar bone, which cut his artery and he died of bleeding.
In the Spring of 1993 a fighter of the National Guard, political prisoner Mr Malkhaz Abramishvili, died of hearth desease because of intolerable conditions in Tbilisi prison. In 1996 a supporter of President Gamsakhurdia, political prisoner Mr Malkhaz Gviniashvili, died of tuberculosis in the hospital of the State prison.
In the Summer of 1996 a supporter of the legal government, political prisoner Mr David Loladze, died after severe torture and beatings during the investigation of his case. On January 28, 1999 a fighter of the National Guard, Mr Koba Tsimitia died of tuberculosis.
Today there are more than a hundred poltical prisoners In Georgia. The health condition of many of them is critical. Mr Nemo Chanturia, an officer of the National Guard and a prisoner of war, suffers from severe torture, a long lasting beating and hard conditions of the prison cell. He also has diabetes of the first category. A member of the National Guard, Mr Kakha Dgitshonaia beame blind because of traumas which he had got after the beating at the moment of his arrest. A political prisoner, Mr Tamaz
(Bidzina) Goreleshvili, became mentally ill after the physical and psykhological pressure of the government officers of prison.
These prisoners are held in the Prison Republic Hospital during several months to be examined competely and according to the promises of the representatives of the State Party Human Rights structures, be presented to the medical commission, which would be competent to make a descision to release these prisoners because of their critical health condition.
One more detained except abovementioned political prisoners, Mr G. Narzia, would have been presented to the medical commission, but because of the medical commission and the procedure of their release has been prolonged artificially and without any reason, prisoner Narzia died five days ago.
The health condition of the political prisoners of the government of Georgia had become from bad to worse, because of the artificial prolonging of the procedure of the presentation to the medical commission.
The situation of the prisoners is most critical.
We, the political prisoners of the government of Georgia, appeal to all Human Rights organizations of the world once again: Please, support and help us in our reguest to release at leats the diseased prisoners in order to save their lives!
Signed by 13 political prisoners:
Ramaz Vanishvili (born 1964, arrested 1994, sentenced for 6 years, tortured)
Zaza Danelia (born 1968, arrested 95, 10 years, case no 1095211, tortured)
Koba Dzidziguri (born 1966, arrested 95, case no 1095211, 12 years prison, tortured)
Zviad Dzidziguri (MP, born 64, arr. 95, case no 7495927, tortured, tuberculosis)
Soso (Josif) Kuprava (born 1952, arrested 93, 14 years prison, case no N83, tortured)
Mamuka Aptsiauri (born 1971, arr. 92, trialed 95, 7 yrs, case no 7493810, tuberculosis)
Valter Shurgaia (MP of1990 elect, born 44, arrested 94, 15 yrs, tortured several times)
Saur Kobalia (MP, born 38, arr. 94, trialed 96, 13 years prison, tortured several times)
Vazha Tsereteli (born 57, arr. 95, trialed 97, 10 years, case 1095211, tortured)
Goderdzi Ogodgishvili (details later)
Zaza Dvali (arrested 95, case no 341, trial started on February 24, 1997)
Bidzina Crubakidzde (details later)
Giorgi Kozbesashvili (born 66, arr. 95, trialed 97, case no 1095211, 12 yrs, tortured)
Pls., note: The number of the Georgian political prisoners is today more than 100, the 13 above are only part of the list. The complete list is available, contact us, tel + 358 9 1351 240, or send e-mail to:
a-n@promin.pp.fi.
