We, the undersigned organizations, evaluate the investigation of Kortskheli incident as ineffective and call on the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Georgia and the Prosecutor’s Office of Georgia to take appropriate and timely measures in order to raise the issue of criminal responsibility of any person involved in this incident, organizing and implementing the act of violence.
More than a week has passed since violent confrontation, which took place on May 22, during by-election for a vacant seat in local council held in Zugdidi. However, it still remains unclear at what stage the investigation is, what procedural and investigative actions have been taken on the case in order to obtain complete information and why criminal prosecution has not yet been conducted against persons directly involved in acts of violence. These are all legitimate questions especially in the light of the situation, where particular persons can be identified in a number of video footage that depicts the development of confrontation and that are publicly disseminated.
Also important element is the qualification of the case. As it is known, the investigation is conducted under Article 125 of the Criminal Code of Georgia (battery). However, images and information disseminated by the media indicate that there was likely to be pre-organized actions conducted by a group of persons, the violent acts of which go beyond beating and contain signs of more serious crimes. These actions should be properly qualified in order to adequately respond to the incident; proper qualification is also important in order to ensure public confidence in investigation and cooperation with the investigative authorities. Qualifying this criminal case as beating is inappropriate, since it does not adequately reflect the full extent and nature of violent confrontation.
No explanations have yet been made as to why the police have failed to timely prevent violent facts on the ground and why the sufficient police resources have not been timely mobilized and interfered into the process.
Such kind of passivity of the police and investigative agencies, and their lack of will to investigate the crime once again put into question the political neutrality of the law enforcement system. It should be noted that in other cases, measures used by the police during the peaceful and / or less violent demonstrations, including detention of activists, clearly indicate the double standards of the police and the prosecutor’s office. Passivity and ineffectiveness of the investigation creates a sense of insecurity and encourages violent attitudes in society, which has recently been revealed against a number of social groups. It is obvious that the state has no clear-cut answer on violence and that the respond of the state apparatus depends on political or other type of conjuncture.
This is particularly dangerous during the pre-election process, when in case of absence of minimum safety guarantees it would be particularly impossible to carry out election campaign in a fair and competitive environment and to freely express one’s will. Besides, without ensuring a safe environment, a peaceful, democratic development of the country will be virtually impossible.
Therefore, we call on:
Human Rights Education and Monitoring Center (EMC)
Georgian Democracy Initiative (GDI)
Article 42 of the Constitution
Partnership for Human Rights (PHR)
Media Development Fund (MDF)
Tolerance and Diversity Institute (TDI)
Open Society Georgia Foundation (OSGF)
Transparency International Georgia (TI Georgia)
International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy (ISFED)
Human Rights Center
