GEORGIA: VIOLENT PRIEST'S TRIAL A "CHARADE"

by Felix Corley, Keston News Service

Mikhail Saralishvili, officer manager of the Georgian Bible Society who was attacked by a mob led by violent True Orthodox priest Vasili Mkalavishvili in March 2001, has withdrawn in disgust from the criminal trial of the priest now underway in the capital Tbilisi. "I waited for a year and a half for this trial," he told Keston News Service from Tbilisi on 4 November. "When it finally began I saw it was only going to be a charade. It is better not to take part." Saralishvili reckons the most Mkalavishvili will receive for his three-year reign of terror against religious minorities and others is a fine of 100 laris (46 US dollars, 46 Euros or 30 British pounds) or a three-month suspended sentence. "If this was a normal trial he would get what he deserves."

Saralishvili is angered by the attitude of the authorities who have, he believes, deliberately failed to take Mkalavishvili's crimes seriously. "The authorities tried earlier not to bring any such cases to court," he told Keston. "Now they are doing everything to make the victims withdraw, so that they can say: Look, we had a trial and he didn't do anything to deserve a serious punishment."

Mkalavishvili's trial – which began on 25 January – resumed on 25 October in Tbilisi's Didube-Chugureti District Court (see KNS 22 October 2002). He faces charges under articles 120 (causing light injuries), 125 (beatings), 155 (illegally hindering religious activity), 226 (hooliganism) and 256 (persecution) of the Criminal Code. Under Georgian law a defendant who has not previously been convicted of an offence and who faces a maximum penalty of less than a three year sentence can offer reconciliation with the plaintiff. Mkalavishvili's lawyer offered this to the five victims in the case, three from the Jehovah's Witnesses, Saralishvili from the Bible Society and a former employee of the newspaper Rezonansi. All rejected the defence offer.

However, Saralishvili withdrew from the trial on 29 October, giving the court his reasons. That evening, Georgian television broadcast an interview with him setting out his reasons again. "Although I withdrew from the trial," he told Keston, "that does not mean that Vasili and I will be friends. He deserves to be punished. He is a bandit."

The Jehovah's Witnesses are also dissatisfied at the way the cases have been chosen, but are determined to see the trial through. "The charges against Mkalavishvili are not serious," Gennady Gudadze, the Jehovah's Witness leader in Georgia, told Keston from Tbilisi on 4 November. "The most he'll get is a fine." He says the authorities deliberately chose cases where the victims suffered minor injuries. "There have been 138 attacks on Jehovah's Witnesses," Gudadze reported, "of which more than 30 were led by Mkalavishvili. Many of these attacks led to serious injuries."

Despite the fears of Mkalavishvili's victims, the latest hearings have taken place calmly and those present say adequate protection has been provided in the courtroom. On 25 October the judge rejected a defence appeal to have the trial transferred to a larger courtroom. Gudadze reports that while on 25 October a large crowd of Mkalavishvili supporters turned up at the court and a demonstration took place outside, at hearings on 28, 29 and 30 October there were only about a dozen in court, with no further demonstrations outside. "His whole army didn't turn up."

The judge has divided the public gallery into three sections, one for Mkalavishvili supporters, one for the press, international and diplomatic observers and one for the victims and their supporters.

On 30 October the defence moved that "the American spy" – a reference to Matthew Christ, human rights officer at the United States embassy in Tbilisi - be barred from the courtroom, but the judge rejected this.

On 30 October the case was adjourned until 11 November to give Rezonansi the opportunity to find a lawyer. The newspaper employee wounded in the attack Mkalavishvili led on its offices no longer works for the newspaper, and the newspaper is recorded as the victim, not the individual.

Whatever the outcome of the trial – which has not even begun to hear evidence from the victims yet – the violence against religious minorities has continued in recent months. A True Orthodox Church (of a jurisdiction unaffiliated to that of Mkalavishvili) has been destroyed and Jehovah's Witness meetings have been attacked over the summer.

Gudadze points out that – in addition to the attacks on his communities led by Mkalavishvili - many have been by the organisation Jvari, a legally-registered patriotic organisation based in the town of Rustavi and led by Paata Bluashvili. "Five or six criminal cases have been launched against them, and five of its leaders have been banned by the courts from travelling outside Rustavi," Gudadze reported. He said the other attacks have been organised by individuals. Some Jehovah's Witness cases are also being considered by the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, to which Georgia is subject as a member of the Council of Europe.

Saralishvili pointed out that the current trial covers an attack in March 2001, when Mkalavishvili and his supporters attacked a shipment of literature being transported from the port of Poti to Tbilisi (see KNS 14 March 2001). He said the mob had blockaded the road, started to beat him and his colleagues and seized the literature. He added that the police had joined in the attack. Some of the books were later returned, but many had already been destroyed and could not be recovered.

Saralishvili noted that in a separate incident, Mkalavishvili and his mob had attacked a Baptist warehouse in February of this year, burning Bibles belonging to the Bible Society (see KNS 4 February 2002). "The criminal case over this incident is continuing and no date for a trial has yet been fixed," he told Keston. "But we will not be withdrawing from that case." He said he believed that given the international attention that case attracted and the fact that film of the incident has been seen around the world "the authorities will not be able to get away with it as easily as they have done in the present case".

Source: Keston News Service, November 4, 2002

[HOME] [ACT] [CONNECT] [JOIN] [ABOUT] [SEARCH]