Prosecutor’s Office Rejects Victim Status Request for Saakashvili
By Natalia Kochiashvili
Friday, January 21, 2022
The Prosecutor's Office of Georgia did not satisfy the lawyers' request of the imprisoned ex-President of Georgia to recognize Mikheil Saakashvili as a victim. The Prosecutor's Office released a statement on January 20 regarding the investigation launched by the State Inspector's Office into Saakashvili's Gldani Penitentiary Institution #18 and Gori Military Hospital for alleged inhuman treatment.
“The prosecutor's office expresses its readiness to fully ensure the right to defense, to allow Mikheil Saakashvili’s human rights lawyers to get acquainted with the materials of the criminal case,” the statement reads.
The prosecution explains that the reason is the unsubstantiation of the request. Moreover, the statement notes that the State Inspector's Office has not yet complied with the instructions of the Prosecutor's Office to conduct investigative and procedural actions.
The lawyers applied to the prosecutor's office, requesting for Saakashvili to be recognized as a victim. They demanded recognition of Saakashvili as a victim of degrading and inhumane treatment.
“It is important for us to have full access to all the material that exists today in the agency that is investigating this issue,” said Saakashvili's lawyer, Nika Gvaramia.
Public Defender Nino Lomjaria considered that the lawyers' request was fair as well.
On November 9, 2021, the Office of the State Inspector of Georgia announced that it had launched an investigation into the possible inhumane treatment of Saakashvili. The reason for launching the investigation was the message received from the Public Defender's Office and the information spread on social networks/media outlets. Later, before Saakashvili was returned from the Gori hospital to the Rustavi prison, he had a conflict with the escort staff.
The former president, now a citizen of Ukraine, returned to Georgia at the end of September 2021 after 8 years in political exile. He was arrested on October 1 in Tbilisi. Saakashvili was on a hunger strike since his arrest, which ended after the Ministry of Justice announced on November 19 that he had been transferred from a penitentiary medical facility to a Gori military hospital.
In 2018, a Georgian court tried Saakashvili in absentia for pardoning convicts over the death of Sandro Girgvliani and beating former MP Valeri Gelashvili. The court found Mikheil Saakashvili guilty in both cases of abuse of power. He has been sentenced to 6 years in prison. Additionally, the ex-president is charged with several other offenses including illegal seizure of property, embezzlement, illegal rally dispersal, and illegal border crossing. Saakashvili calls all cases politically motivated.
Saakashvili’s judge changed the measure of restraint for the 4 defendants arrested in the case of illegal entry of Saakashvili to Georgia. According to the judge, they won’t wait for the verdict to be announced in prison and will be released on GEL5000 bail, each.
Investigation charges Mikheil Saakashvili's detainees into entering Georgia, Giorgi Narimanidze, Elguja Tsomaia, Shalva, and Zurab Tsotsoria to cover up serious crimes. As for Tsomaia, he has also been charged with assisting Mikheil Saakashvili in illegally crossing the border.
At the end of September, Saakashvili secretly returned to Georgia in a trailer loaded with dairy products, which arrived by ship from the Ukrainian port of Chernomorsk to the port of Poti. The owner of the trailer, Tsomaia, is accused of covering up a serious crime and assisting in illegal border crossing. Police arrested Tsomaia - who offered his flat to Saakashvili as a temporary residence and hiding spot — on October 3, while father and son Zurab and Shalva Tsotsoria were arrested on October 5 for transporting Saakashvili to Georgia’s western region of Samegrelo after he illegally entered the country from Ukraine.
