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  • Mirtskhulava case goes to court, then delayed

    The Messenger, Georgia
    Nov. 4, 2004

    Mirtskhulava case goes to court, then delayed
    By Mary Makharashvili


    Davit Mirtskhulava sits in the courtroom cell
    as lawyer Eka Beselia argues in his defense
    (Photo by Mary Makharashvili)

    The case against former Chair of the Energy Regulatory Commission and
    Minister of Fuel and Energy Davit Mirtskhulava was finally brought to
    court on Wednesday, one of the government's first court proceedings
    against a former government official.

    But only twenty minutes after the Mtatsminda-Krtsanisi regional court
    began hearing the case the judge announced that he was postponing it
    until November 10 as the prosecution did not have sufficient evidence
    to present to the court and had asked for additional time.

    Although officials arrested Mirtskhulava in December 2003, prosecutors
    said the final packet of evidence had not been prepared yet for the
    court.

    Despite poor health Davit Mirtskhulava attended the court proceedings
    in the caged defendant's booth. While 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.

    Although he did not have an opportunity to take questions from the
    press, Mirtskhulava told a throng of reporters before the hearing
    began: "I do not have a hope that any court in Georgia will decide this
    case in my favor."

    "If the court is independent in Georgia I will be proven right, but if
    not . . . " he said from behind the cell block.

    Before the hearing began Mirtskhulava's lawyer Eka Beselia asked that
    the court room be changed on the grounds that the one chosen was too
    small with space for only 20 people. She said that as a result the
    relatives of Mirtskhulava and other interested people could not attend
    the hearing and were forced to wait in the corridor.

    However, the judge said that there were not bigger rooms in the
    building, and the hearing would have to be held in the room they were
    in.

    "The final accusations revealed by the investigation that the General
    Prosecutor's Office charges Mirtskhulava with, are as follows," opened
    Prosecutor Kakha Machavariani. "Abuse of power, and hiding secret
    materials "

    "He is accused of abuse of power while Georgian Minister of Fuel and
    Energy, which, as 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.

    "This agreement was signed by several people, but only Mirtskhulava is
    accused," Beselia complained. "The funny thing is that one of the
    signatories of the same document is acknowledged as the victim of the
    agreement and Mirtskhulava as guilty."

    Asked why the authority has not brought a case against the other people
    who signed the agreement, Beselia said that the authority only wanted
    Mirtskhulava to be imprisoned. She said that she will raise the issue
    of the responsibility of the other signatories when the hearing
    resumes.

    Beselia said that Mirtskhulava's defense has strong new arguments that
    absolutely refute this accusation against Mirtskhulava.

    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 law documents could
    only be considered as hidden if Mirtskhulava had kept them at his
    private home or some other place besides the state structures.

    Beselia says that she will submit new evidence to the court that will
    nullify all of these charges. "The accusations against Mirtskhulava are
    both weak and groundless, but in spite of this we have amassed serious
    evidence that we will present the court at the hearing. I hope that the
    court procedures will not be false and unjust. The judge must manage to
    remain free from pressure and to be impartial and objective," said
    Beselia.

    The total sum that the Prosecutor's Office requests Mirtskhulava pay is
    over USD 2 million plus fines.

    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. Mirtskhulava, however, protests his innocence,
    adding that he does not have enough money to buy his way out of jail.

    "We want Mirtskhulava's case to become the precedent of fighting
    against untrue accusations and in this way proving the innocence of the
    person. What the Prosecutor's Office is doing is called official
    racketeering," said Beselia.

    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.
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