GEORGIA: NEW CRIME CRACKDOWN
By Nino Gerzmava in Kutaisi, Tamunia Shonia in Tsalenjikha and Natia Kuprashvili in Tbilisi

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[02:16 pm] 23 June, 2007

Spectacular confiscation of property belonging to alleged criminal
kingpins.

"We will confiscate from all thieves in law the palaces they built
with their dirty money, and put police stations in their place." A
year after Georgia’s interior minister Vano Merabishvili made this
bold statement, the police have begun a series of high-profile
property seizures.

On May 24, the interior ministry staged a lavish ceremony in the
western Georgian town of Tsalenjikha to formally hand over the house of
an alleged criminal mastermind Gia Kvaratskhelia to the local police.

A police band played and a folk music ensemble performed songs. The
interior minister himself attended the ceremony, announcing this was
the beginning of a much wider campaign.

As well as the cherry-red house equipped with tunnels and secret rooms,
the local police force acquired a cottage done up in traditional style,
a swimming pool, tennis courts and a fountain.

"Now local residents will be able to swim in this pool," said
Merabishvili proudly.

Kvaratskhelia himself, who faces attempts to extradite him to Georgia,
is now resident in Spain and is not contesting the confiscation
in court.

However, in an unanticipated move another alleged "thief in law" in
western Georgia is taking the government to court to protest against
the seizure of his house.

On coming to power in 2004, Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili
made a strong commitment to root out criminality and corruption in
his country.

The new campaign kicked off after the Georgian government included the
term "thief in law" for the first time in new legislation targeting
organised crime and racketeering.

The new law defines a thief in law as "a member of the criminal world
who follows the special laws of the criminal world and in some form
runs and/or organises the activity of the criminal world or a certain
group of people".

The concept of thief in law dates back to Soviet times, when several
hundred criminal kingpins took pride in this appellation. A thief in
law lived entirely outside the legal system of the country and earned
no money from the state. He oversaw a criminal network, but did not
openly engage in crime himself, relying on his underlings to do so.

According to a book by crime expert Nodar Imerlishvili, Georgia always
had a disproportionately high number of these crime bosses and still
has a majority of the 700 or so still operating in the post-Soviet
space. western Georgia is particularly well represented.

Imerlishvili wrote that this was as a direct result of the Georgian
Communist Party in the 1950s encouraging the growth of the number of
thieves in law in order to use them as "double agents".

By tradition, a thief in law earns his title by being nominated by
at least two others, a process known as a "coronation".

The names of these thieves in law are generally known, but they refuse
to talk about their activities in public or to the media.

The new law stipulates that someone is defined as a thief in law
only if he himself confirms it – which such criminals are likely to
do due to their code of honour.

The interior ministry says that over the last three years, the police
have detained 70 thieves in law, the majority of whom have confessed
their guilt.

In a high-profile case, a Tbilisi court last December ordered the
seizure of several homes belonging to alleged thief in law Zakary
Kalashov. The value of the property was estimated at 30 million lari
(around 17 million US dollars).

Gia Kvaratskhelia was charged with racketeering and illegal criminal
activity and an international warrant was put out for his arrest in
February 2006, but it took more than a year for the police to seize
his properties.

This campaign proves, says parliamentary deputy Nodar Grigalashvili,
that the era of the thieves in law in Georgia is over. "This is a
result of the course chosen by the government of Georgia. Georgian
thieves in law are today either sitting in prison or hiding abroad,"
he said.

However, the police are finding it hard to prove ownership of much
of the property they want to confiscate.

Lawyer Shorena Balkhamishvili told IWPR that when the new legislation
was being developed, the government anticipated that it would meet
no resistance in the courts because according to the strict laws of
the underworld, criminals must not cooperate with the judicial system.

They did not reckon with the eventuality that owners would register
properties in someone else’s name.

Local journalist Nato Berulava recalls that in January 2006 she and
her colleagues visited Kvaratskhelia’s house to find to their surprise
their local bishop, Gerasim, on the premises.

"It turned out that before the house could be confiscated, the owner
had given the property to the patriarchate," said Berulava.

Bishop Gerasim said that the church was planning to turn the house
into a refuge for homeless children.

"Some people believe that the church can’t receive property from
a thief in law as a gift," said local priest, Father Malkhaz
Chanturia. "Those who think that are a long way from the teachings
of the church and the church’s thinking. One can receive donations
from sinners."

The patriarchate initially protested against the confiscation of the
house but later agreed to hand it over.

"We were told that the diocese did not have the right documents
confirming that the property had been given as a gift," said Father
Malkhaz. "The church must submit to the state, and that is what
we did."

Kvaratskhelia now lives in Barcelona with his family, as extradition
proceedings are still pending, and has declined to comment on the
seizure of his property.

A relative of the accused man, who refused to be named, told IWPR
that the luxury residence had been built with Kvaratskhelia’s money,
not for habitation but as a gift for the church.

Local residents also refused to comment to IWPR. "No one wants to make
any statements against the thieves in law," explained one. "Whatever
the government says, people still think in the old way and truly
regard these people as men of authority, and they’re afraid of them."

Another case in western Georgia’s biggest city, Kutaisi, has taken
a different turn.

Alleged crime boss Gaioz Zviadadze has taken the unusual step of
challenging in court an attempt to confiscate his newly-built,
three-storey 500-square-metre house.

After an initial decision in favour of the government in the city
and regional courts, Zviadadze is now appealing. Neither the local
police, nor Zviadadze and his family, has commented on the case,
saying they are awaiting a final verdict.

Balkhamishvili told IWPR, "The right of private property is enshrined
in the constitution of Georgia.

It will be hard even for minister Vano Merabishvili himself to lay
hands on the property of a private individual."

Prosecutors in Kutaisi are now studying the history of properties
belonging to around 50 alleged thieves in law – but they are treading
warily.

"People have been talking about the ‘exposure’ of thieves in law,
in other words the confiscation of [their] property… for the last
ten years, but in practice almost nothing has been done," said one
police officer, who asked not to be named.

"Although the majority of the thieves in law no longer live in Kutaisi,
they have plenty of ‘tails’ in this town. If they put a police station
in a [confiscated] house, a grenade could be tossed in there the
next day.

"You will need a second head on your shoulders if you want to live
there."

Natia Kuprashvili is the Georgian editor of IWPR’s Caucasus newspaper,
Panorama, and Nino Gerzmava and Tamunia Shonia are correspondents
for the title. An earlier version of this article was published in
Panorama. Institute for War and Peace Reporting’s Caucasus Reporting
Service.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress