The Messenger, Georgia
Feb 4 2005
Doctors call for release of former minister
Mirtskhulava’s condition requires medical attention impossible to
administer in prison hospital, they argue
By Mary Makharashvili
Doctors of Davit Mirtskhulava have said that the former chair of the
Energy Regulatory Commission needs permanent treatment that is
practically impossible to administer in the prison hospital.
The doctors gave evidence on behalf of Mirtskhulava at
Mtatsminda-Krtsanisi Regional Court on January 31, saying that his
current condition is very serious, and that he needs to be released
from prison so that he can receive the appropriate treatment. Doctor
Irakli Seria also declared that he would assist Mirtskhulava in
proving his innocence.
Despite his poor health, the former chair of the Energy Regulatory
Commission attended the court proceedings in the caged defendant’s
booth. Walking into the court room, he showed a serious limp, thought
to be a result of his ill health and a heart attack earlier this
year.
There he heard his lawyer Otar Gamkrelidze state that Mirtskhulava is
being detained illegally. “I think that he is an illegal prisoner as
the charge that Prosecutor’s Office has raised against him is not
proved based on the law and that is why there are so many violations
in this case,” said Gamkrelidze.
Another lawyer Eka Beselia commented on her colleague’s vast
experience, saying, “Gamkrelidze has directly said that he has never
heard of this kind of a thing during his years of legal practice,”
she said, adding that she has every confidence of proving her
client’s innocence.
However, while Prosecutor Kakha Machavariani said Mirtskhulava’s
lawyers were entitled to express their opinions, he also repeated the
charges facing Mirtskhulava: abuse of power and hiding secret
materials.
“He is accused of abuse of power while Georgian Minister of Fuel and
Energy, which the Prosecutor’s Office states seriously damaged the
country economically,” Eka Beselia explained to The Messenger.
In particular, the General Prosecutor’s Office named a contract
agreed with Armenergo during the period when Mirtskhulava was
minister, which the investigation claims is one-sided and
artificially increased Georgian Railway’s debt to Armenergo from USD
4 million to USD 6 million.
The investigation says that Mirtskhulava agreed to this in return for
certain benefits – namely, helping mediator company
Energomanqkorporatsia to embezzle 90 percent of the USD 6 million
transmitted from Georgian Railway. Georgia still had to pay the debt
as a result of the one-sided contract Mirtskhulava had signed.
As for the second charge against Mirtskhulava – that he took secret
materials relating to Georgia-Armenia criminal relationships from the
Energy Ministry and hid them in the office of the National Regulation
Commission – Beselia said that according to the legal documents could
only be considered as hidden if Mirtskhulava had kept them at his
private home or some other place besides the state structures.
Mirtskhulava is the first high ranking official from the Shevardnadze
administration whose case has come to court, as most others who have
been charged by the General Prosecutor’s Office have preferred to pay
money for their freedom.
The total sum that the Prosecutor’s Office requests Mirtskhulava pay
is over USD 2 million plus fines, but the former minister protests
his innocence, adding that he does not have enough money to buy his
way out of jail.
If the court finds Mirtskhulava guilty he faces twelve years
imprisonment, but as Beselia told The Messenger, they will not give
up and will fight to the end to prove the truth, even if the case
goes up to the European Court for Human Rights in Strasbourg.
From: Baghdasarian