Georgia: Ex-Defense Minister Found Not Guilty on Some Abuse, Torture Charges
In what is being touted as proof positive of the independence of Georgia's judicial system, a court in Tbilisi on August 1 cleared Georgia’s most controversial man, former Defense Minister Bacho Akhalaia, of charges of physical abuse and torture. The verdict comes as a blow to Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili’s Georgian Dream Coalition and government prosecutors, who have campaigned rigorously against the 32-year-old onetime minister.
Akhalaia had been rumored among many Georgians to be an allegedly abusive prison warden when he served as chief of the penitentiary system under President Mikheil Saakashvili. Such accusations followed him to the posts of defense and interior ministers; he resigned the latter post when revelations of the heinous abuse of prisoners sparked mass demonstrations last fall. The scandal is believed to have significantly contributed to the loss of President Saakashvili’s United National Movement to Ivanishvili’s Georgian Dream Coalition in last October’s parliamentary vote.
In a widely expected move upon coming to power, the Ivanishvili government arrested Akhalaia in the first of what UNM members denounced as high-profile, politically motivated arrests. After five months of hearing evidence, the court today dropped several charges involving the abuse and illegal incarceration of military officers, but Akhalaia remains in prison pending trial on other charges of abuse and torture stemming from his time as prison-system chief and interior minister.
Justice Minister Tea Tsulukiani, who has vigorously gone after Akhalaia and other ex-government officials, described the verdict as testimony to the independence of the judicial system from government involvement. She said that the prosecution (the general prosecutor's office falls under the justice ministry) will build a stronger case against Akhalaia and appeal the decision in court.
Former Army Chief of Staff General Giorgi Kalandadze, a 2008-war hero who was a co-defendant in Akhalaia’s cases, was also acquitted.
Rarely at a loss for a PR opportunity, President Saakashvili, Kalandadze's most prominent champion, met with the army general, and, in a statement, welcomed the verdict as something he'd predicted nine months ago.
Giorgi Lomsadze is a journalist based in Tbilisi, and author of Tamada Tales.
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