Police station head detained for committing alleged crime

Georgia’s Chief Prosecutor’s Office has detained the head of a police station in Tbilisi for an allegedly assaulting a lawyer.

The officer, Lasha Kvikvaia, has been detained on the charge of using violence as an abuse of power in the workplace.

The Prosecutor’s Office statement read that 18 witnesses have been already interrogated. The crime scene has also been examined; an investigative experiment was conducted in the police department with the participation of the victim, Giorgi Mdinaradze, who was beaten by the chief of the Vake-Saburtalo 5th police station chief and his staff. The lawyer said he was assaulted after he asked his defendant not to give a testimony to police.

The First Deputy Chief Prosecutor of Georgia, Irakli Shotadze, and Tbilisi Prosecutor Mikheil Shakulashvili held a meeting with Mdinaradze, the Chairman of the Georgian Bar Association Zaza Khatiashvili, and the head of the International Secretary of the Georgian Bar Association, Davit Asatiani.

The main topic of the meeting was the violence perpetrated against Mdinaradze at a police station on November 8, 2015, which is being investigated by the Prosecutor’s Office of Georgia. Shotadze and Shakulashvili provided the lawyers with information on the investigative activities being carried out in the case. The victim received a promise that the case would be investigated in the shortest possible time and all persons convicted of the commission of crime would be held criminally liable.

The fact that a lawyer was assaulted at a police department is deeply disturbing, as Mdinaradze was fulfilling his legal obligation to his client.

However, the reaction to the case was markedly to those of previous state leadership over similar incidents.

It had been revealed by the Georgian civil sector, the Ombudsman and other relevant individuals, that offences committed by law enforcement and security service personnel were mainly ignored under the previous state leadership.

While it is true that the former Government managed to decrease the crime rate in Georgia and eradicate the dominance of organized crime bosses, the police as an institution was very privileged, and crimes committed by policemen (in most cases) were not investigated.

Crimes take place in every country. However, the rate of crime and the responses to breaches of the law are crucial. Everyone should know that they will be adequately punished if they break the law, no matter whether they are a police officer or a civilian.