Intermediate Report Research of Pre-election Period - The Human ...

Human Rights Center (HRIDC) 

Intermediate Report 

Research of Pre-election Period 

August-September, 2012 

September, 2012 

Tbilisi 

1

Human Rights Center is an NGO dedicated to increasing respect for human rights and 

fundamental freedoms and promoting the democratic development of the state. We cooperate 

with international and local NGOs which share the understanding that respecting human rights 

represents a precondition for strengthening democracy and peace in Georgia. 

Authors: Mikheil Sharashidze, Nestan Londaridze 

Editors: Ucha Nanuashvili, Aleko Tskitishvili 

Translators: Nino Tlashadze, Nino Tsagareishvili 

Human Rights Center would like to thank the US Embassy in Georgia, the National Endowment 

for Democracy (NED) and the Norwegian Helsinki Committee. The views expressed in the 

report belongs to Human Rights Center only and do not necessarily reflect the views of donors. 

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Contents 

Introduction -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4 

Standards for Assessment of Pre-election Environment and Goals of Monitoring ------ 5 

Main Features of Ongoing Electoral Process in Georgia -------------------------------------- 6 

Types of Government Resources Used in Ongoing Electoral Process ------------------- 8 

Use of Legislative Resources of Government ---------------------------------------------- 11 

Use of Law-enforcement, Supervisory and Regulatory (Government) Resources -----------15 

Illegal Interference in Jurnalistic Activitis----------------------------------------------------- 15 

Motivated Oppressions where governmental Officials directly or indirectly participated - 21 

Cases of Use of financial Resources and government Regulations ----------- 69 

Use of Media Resources by the Government------------------------------------------- 80 

Conclusion -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 81 

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Introduction 

The 2012 parliamentary elections represented a significant event in the history of Georgia. It 

should be taken into account that according to new constitutional amendments, Georgia will 

transfer to a mixed form of governance in which the political and legal role of the Parliament 

in the life of the country will increase. 

Almost a year before the elections, a new opposition coalition “Georgian Dream” was created 

with strong financial resources (The leader of “Georgian Dream” is the richest person in 

Georgia, Bidzina Ivanishvili). The main opposition parties joined the coalition which formed 

a real electoral alternative to National Movement for the first time in many years. The 

creation of an important opposition coalition should help to promote a real atmosphere of 

competition in future parliamentary elections. However, real political competition is one 

thing, whilst the creation of a political and legal environment which ensures reliable 

guarantees for such competition is another. 

The 2012 Parliamentary elections represent a turning-point in 

the political and legal 

development of Georgia. The future development of the country and its perspectives of 

integration into the Euro-Atlantic space depend on the results of these elections, which 

represent the only guarantee for the sustainable development of a secure Georgian society. 

According to the joint statement of the High Representative of the EU Catherine Ashton and 

the EU Commissioner for Enlargement and European Neighborhood Policy Štefan Füle, the 

EU has many expectations about the parliamentary elections on October 1 st since they will be 

crucial for the continued democratic development of Georgia and will set the stage for the 

quality and depth of EU-Georgia relations in the future. 1 

1 

http://www.consilium.europa.eu/uedocs/cms_Data/docs/pressdata/EN/foraff/132250.pdf 

4

Standards for Assessment of Pre-election Environment and Monitoring 

Elections monitoring must take into account not only the day on which eligible citizens cast 

their vote. It is an important part of monitoring to consider and analyze all events which 

may influence the electoral process and its fairness. The characteristic trends of the current 

electoral process which are presented in this report must be assessed both separately and in 

conjunction with each other in order to evaluate their impact on the pre-election 

environment and in general on the fairness of the electoral process. The goal of this analysis 

is to determine how political and legal processes in Georgia comply with international and 

national standards obligatory for elections. In particular, ensuring a truly competitive preelection 

environment allows voters the possibility of making real and informed choices. 

Also, it is crucial to guarantee a free, fair and equal pre-election environment for relevant 

electoral candidates and their supporters. 

According to article 5 of the Constitution, the people shall be the source of state authority in 

Georgia. People exercise their power “through their representatives” who are elected by 

means of an equal and fair electoral process. Thus, elections represent an institutional 

mechanism which makes democracy work. 2 

According to the same article, “no one has right to seize the authority or usurp it” in other 

words, to exercise authority without fair electoral procedures and the democratic legitimacy 

gained as a result. 

Thus, “in order for people to govern, people should participate in politics and the best way to 

do this is through elections”. 3 The electoral process which ensures “people‟s governance” 

must be fair. To determine its fairness, an equal electoral environment is decisive. “In the 

elections process, the state has an obligation to ensure an environment of equality. In this 

2 

#1/1493 decision of December 27 th of 2012 of Constitutional Court on the case – “Political Union of 

Citizens New Rights Party and Conservative Party of Georgia against Parliament of Georgia.” 

3 

ibid 

5

process, its main function is not to restrict anyone or give privileges without reasonable 

explanation”. 4 

Thus, a fair and equal electoral environment means that the state must place all electoral 

candidates on an equal footing. Naturally, it is impossible to achieve complete equality 

considering the differing administrative and financial abilities of each electoral candidate, 

but the state must not exert any ungrounded or unfair discrimination on top of these preexisting 

inequalities. Moreover, the relevant legislation must not allow such discrimination 

and must be applied objectively towards everyone. 

Considering all the abovementioned points, the goal of this research is to assess the electoral 

process, specificially the pre-election period, including how well the state obligation to 

ensure an equal electoral environment is fulfilled. 

Main Features of Ongoing Electoral Process in Georgia 

One main feature of the ongoing electoral process in Georgia is that on absolutely every level 

of state governance, the governing party – National Movement – dominates. Because of this, 

often it is very hard to differentiate the work of the government from the work of an 

electoral party prompted by electoral interests, especially in the pre-election period. This 

gives the impression that state bodies are involved in the pre-election battle, which 

negatively affects the electoral environment. “As long as there is no line between the State 

and the ruling party, this will continue to be a problem and lead to tension and divisions”. 

The work of the government during the pre-election period is entirely directed against new 

opposition coalition “Georgian Dream”. Since October 2011, after billionaire Bidzina 

Ivanishvili announced his desire to form an opposition political party, he began to have 

problems (losing his citizenship, refusal of return of his citizenship on unjust grounds, 

etc…). Later when he formed a political organization, the organization and his political 

4 

ibid 

6

partners started to have problems (repeated fines and confiscation of property). In this 

period, private persons associated with Bidzina Ivanishvili also started to have problems 

which were often created artificially. 

Significant changes made in the legislation on political unions of citizens and in the Criminal 

Code as well as the Code of Administrative Offences and the new Electoral Code (which was 

adopted on December 28 th 2011) in December 2011 were prompted by the formation of the 

new opposition coalition. These amendments were intended to impose restrictions on the 

financing of electoral campaigns. Although the goal of limiting the amount of money used 

for political ends is legitimate in itself, the amendments caused various reactions. The 

majority of human rights organizations in Georgia consider that these amendments are 

extremely strict and some restrictions and especially sanctions are inadequate. Besides, 

according to the same organizations, the new amendments give the government too much 

room for interpretation and allow them to apply the law selectively, against political groups 

which are seen as undesirable by those in power. 

The electoral process got underway along with restrictions on dissemination of information 

by non-governmental media outlets. In particular, non-governmental TV-channels were 

deprived of the right to cover the regions. Though the Georgian Parliament adopted relevant 

amendments to oblige cable operators to include non-governmental TV-channels in their 

package of services for the 2 months preceding the elections, cable operators are mainly 

available in the big cities of Georgia whilst in the provinces, for almost 50% of the 

population, the only source of alternative information remains satellite antennas. 

Two non-governmental TV channels decided to sell satellite antennas to people in the 

regions in order to enable them to receive information from both governmental and nongovernmental 

channels . The Office of the Prosecutor confiscated their antennas, accusing 

them of trying to bribe voters. Thus, the majority of the population in the regions is deprived 

of the possibility of receiving alternative information. All of this will negatively affect voters' 

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ability to make an informed choice. Besides, the decision of state bodies to restrict the sale of 

satellite antennas contravenes the so-called “must-carry” principle. 

Marked polarization, irrational hatred of political competitors and calling people with 

dissimilar opinions enemies of the state have become features of the pre-election 

environment. One has the impression that the whole government, including high officials, 

are involved in a pre-election campaign which involves ungrounded politicization of 

government bodies and their conversion into pawns in the electoral battle. Due to this, 

political opposition parties and voters supporting them are often referred to not as partners, 

but as electoral competitors. Such biased involvement in the electoral process has the 

potential to violate the utmost principle of democracy – people‟s governance – and could 

monopolize power in one governing party. 

Thus, the main feature of the pre-election environment is the use of so-called government 

bodies for the electoral process, thereby influencing the results of the electoral process in 

favor of the government and the governing party associated with it. 

Types of Government Resources Used in Ongoing Electoral Process 

When we talk about using government resources to influence the electoral process, we mean 

any act of government which is directly aimed at influencing the electoral process and 

specifically at promoting or or disadvantaging electoral candidates. 

Government resources are often defined as administrative and material resources, as outlined 

in the Election Code of Georgia. However, it would be preferable to talk about government 

resources in general and not just administrative and material resources, since government 

interventions can often have non-material form. 

The Georgian organic law Election Code of Georgia includes a definition of “administrative 

resource” in only one article, namely article 48, the title of which is “Prohibition of use of 

administrative resources during pre-election campaign”. Thus, according to the code, use of 

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administrative resources is prohibited only during pre-election campaigning. Pre-election 

campaigning (agitation) according to part I of article 45 of Election Code of Georgia “starts 

from the moment the election date is set.” Thus, according to the same article of the Code “ 

electoral candidates must have equal rights according to this law”. It should also be taken 

into account that the Election Code stipulates that the date of elections should be set no later 

than two months before elections. In line with this provision, the President of Georgia set 

the date of the elections – October 1 st 2012 – on August 1 st 2012, so the prohibition of the use 

of administrative resources started from this date. It should also be taken into account that 

the pre-election period ends on the day of balloting. Thus, prohibition of the use of 

administrative resources should end on the same day. 

According to article 48 of the Election Code of Georgia: “Any person who has the right to 

participate in the pre-election campaign is prohibited from using the following 

administrative resources to support or campaign against any electoral candidate during preelection 

campaigning: 

a) Means of communication, information services and other services of bodies of state 

government and local government or the organizations which are financed from the state 

budget. 

b) Means of transportation belonging to state or local government bodies for free or with 

privileges”. 

According to this provision of the Code, it is prohibited 5 to use certain administrative and 

material resources (buildings, means of communication and transportation) in certain cases, 

for instance, when another electoral candidate does not have the opportunity to use the same 

resources. Thus, it can be said that the list of prohibited or restricted administrative resources 

5 

Regarding this, see Intermediate Report – Research of Pre-electoin Period: 

http://www.humanrights.ge/admin/editor/uploads/pdf/HRIDC_Election_Interim_Eng%20%283%29.pdf 

9

is rather short. Moreover, the conditional restriction operates only for a period of two 

months. 

Another restriction which is not mentioned in the Election Code but concerns 

administrative resources is related to campaign budgets and use of official positions during 

the pre-election period (for two months). According to Article 49 of the Code, relevant 

government officials, participating in the pre-election campaign, must not involve 

subordinate workers in work which aids the electoral chances of a certain candidate, collect 

signatures or conduct pre-election campaigning on business trips financed by state 

government or local government 

or conduct pre-election campaigning while fulfilling 

official duties. The prohibition of conducting pre-election campaigning does not apply to 

government officials holding state political positions. 

According to part 3, Article 49 of the Election Code, “from the day the election date is set till 

the day the final results are announced, it is prohibited: to undertake projects which were 

not previously included in the state/local budget, to increase the budget of programs which 

were not already included in the budget, or to initiate non-scheduled transfers or increase 

scheduled transfers in local government budgets. If this rule is violated, the relevant 

individual can address the Court and request that the accounts are blocked”. 6 

Considering all the above-mentioned points, it would not be expedient for the government 

to make use only of so-called “administrative resources” in order to influence the electoral 

process. The actions carried out by the government in order to directly influence the results 

of elections are a lot broader and not confined to the “administrative resources” foreseen by 

the Code. By such actions we mean any work done by a government body or its members 

which directly or indirectly influences the equality of the electoral contest. Obviously, this 

does not mean that during the pre-election period the government must stop work related to 

the fulfillment of its functions. It is almost always the case, in democratic states, that one or 

6 

Ibid 

10

several political bodies (party or coalition) remains in power in the run-up to elections. 

However, this work should not turn government institutions into players in an electoral 

battle which can put the pre-election environment off-balance. 

As a result of our observation of the pre-election process ongoing in Georgia, we can list the 

following forms of administrative resources: 

1. Legislative Resources – when government uses its legislative authorities to grant electoral 

advantages to a certain political group or on the contrary, to put certain political groups at a 

disadvantage. 

2. Regulatory (governing) resources – use of government authorities for electoral aims. 

3. Law-enforcement resources – when relevant law-enforcement or supervisory bodies are 

used to directly or indirectly influence the results of elections. 

4. Financial Resources – when money from the state budget is used for the benefit of one of 

the electoral candidates 

5. Media Resources – when government-controlled media outlets are misused. 

Concrete cases of the use of government resources will be discussed in the next chapter. 

Moreover, the separate and combined effect on a fair and equal election environment will be 

assessed. 

Use of Legislative Resources by Government 

The main characteristic of a democratically-organized society is that the selection of the 

supreme institutions of government occurs via elections. In order to declare the elections 

democratic, first of all, there must be an election law which ensures free and fair elections in 

the country. At the same time, good election laws are not enough alone to ensure fair 

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elections. The application of this law by the responsible administrative bodies is also 

important. 

The basis for Georgian election legislation includes the Constitution of Georgia (1995), 

Election Code of Georgia (organic law of Georgia adopted on December 27, 2011; went into 

force on January 10, 2012), organic law of Georgia on Political Unions of Citizens, Criminal 

Code of Georgia, Administrative Code and the legal acts of the election administration. 

It is noteworthy that the ruling party – United National Movement – has an absolute 

majority in the Parliament of Georgia. It is entirely possible for them to adopt relevant laws 

and initiate constitutional amendments in the parliament in line with the concrete interests 

of the party. 

For example, 9 months before the parliamentary elections, the Georgian Parliament adopted 

a new organic law on the Election Code of Georgia at its third hearing and introduced 

relevant amendments to the organic law of Georgia on Political Unions of Citizens and to the 

Criminal Code of Georgia with regard to restrictions of party funding and vote-buying issues. 

It is worth noting that before the draft election code was drawn up, 8 main opposition 

political parties (the so-called Opposition Eight) declared a desire to participate in the 

formulation of the new election law through dialogue with the government. In the first 

stages, some progress was achieved in this direction but in the end no large-scale political 

agreement on the election system was achieved and the so-called Opposition Eight fell apart. 

The ruling party had the advantage in these negotiations; if consensus was not achieved, they 

had the authority to pass a legislative decision, so achieving consensus relied on their 

goodwill. So, in December 2011 the Parliament of Georgia adopted the law without 

widespread political agreement. 7 

7 

you can find main gaps in the election code of Georgia in the Intermediate Report Research of Pre-Election Period on the following 

link: http://www.humanrights.ge/admin/editor/uploads/pdf/HRIDC_Election_Interim_Eng%20(3).pdf 

12

On December 27 2011, nine months before the parliamentary elections, the Parliament of 

Georgia passed relevant legislative additions and amendments to the organic law on Political 

Unions of Citizens. According to these amendments, special, strict regulations were 

introduced for the funding of political parties. 8 

There was a well-grounded assumption that those amendments were caused by the 

appearance of the opposition coalition Georgian Dream. It is significant that billionaire 

Bidzina Ivanishvili is leader of the coalition and potentially his political party has strong 

financial support. 

It should be taken into consideration that unlike the election code, the draft law on the 

funding of political parties was not discussed by the Venice Commission (commission of the 

Council of Europe “Democracy through Justice). Of course, the government is not obliged to 

send the draft-law to the Venice Commission for expertise but it is noteworthy that when 

significant legislative amendments are drafted, in accordance with established practice, the 

government usually cooperates with this body. New regulations on party funding made 

funding procedures more complicated, restricted the circle of party donors (namely, legal 

persons were removed from the list) and sanctions for the violation of these rules were made 

more severe. According to the amended law, the State Audit Office of Georgia (formerly 

Chamber of Control) was put in charge of controlling party funding instead of the CEC, 

which is a collegiate body with representatives of both opposition political parties and the 

ruling party. The State Audit Office is a more centralized body and its head is selected by the 

parliament where the ruling party has a majority. 

In accordance with the amendments to the organic law on Political Unions of Citizens 

introduced on December 27 2011, which set strict restrictions on funding of parties, SAO 

8 

Human Rights Center’s Intermediate Report on Research of Pre-Election Period 

http://www.humanrights.ge/admin/editor/uploads/pdf/HRIDC_Election_Interim_Eng%20(3).pdf 

13

was put in charge of controlling party funding (in accordance with the 2012 Constitutional 

amendments, former Chamber of Control was renamed the State Audit Office). 

The main functions of the former Chamber of Control were regulated by Article 97 of the 

Constitution of Georgia. The initial version of this article stated that “The Chamber of 

Control of Georgia shall supervise the use and expenditure of state funds and of other 

material goods. It shall also be authorized to examine the activities of other state bodies of 

fiscal and economic control and submit proposals on improving tax legislation to the 

Parliament.” These functions and the name of the former Chamber of Control were changed 

by the constitutional amendments of May 22, 2012. According to the new amendments and 

additions to the Constitution, the State Audit Office shall supervise the use and expenditure 

of public funds and other material goods – that is, including the non-state expenditure of 

political parties; although this institution already supervised the expenditure of political 

parties in accordance with the amendments introduced on December 27, 2011 to the Law of 

Georgia on Political Parties. We can assert that from December 27 2011 to May 22 2012, the 

Chamber of Control carried out activities beyond its realm of competency as defined by the 

Constitution. We believe this fact can be considered as a significant violation of the 

Constitution and it must be studied in detail in view of the constitutionality and the legal 

impact of those violations. We can only assume why the Georgian legislative body failed to 

respect such an important constitutional amendment in addition to the principle of the rule 

of law. However, we should underline one important fact – unlike in organic law, more 

complex and lengthy legislative procedures are required to amend the constitution. 

Moreover, any draft constitutional amendment must be publicly discussed for at least one 

month. So, unlike in organic law, it is impossible to introduce any amendments to the 

Constitution in a limited time-frame. 

The particular procedures around discussing and passing constitutional amendments stem 

from the rule of law principle which states that when adopting any law (particularly 

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amendments to the Constitution) special procedures must be respected, which are mentioned 

in the report approved by the Venice Commission on April 4, 2011. 9 

So, we can assume that the government made negative use of some legislative resources 

before the elections. Some more legislative amendments were adopted using the same 

method and were used for a particular purpose, as happened in the case of Bidzina 

Ivanishvili's Cartu Bank , which was fined 200 million lari. 10 

Use of Law Enforcement, Supervisory and Regulatory (Ruling) Resources of the Government 

During the entire pre-election period, many incidents were observed when supervisory and 

law enforcement institutions of the government exerted a direct influence on voters, election 

candidates and their activists. The following state institutions were particularly active in this 

regard: law enforcement bodies (mostly police and special units of the MIA), judiciary bodies 

(which consistently accepted solicitations of police, prosecutor‟s office and other supervisory 

bodies to detain politically active people, to impose administrative imprisonment on them, 

etc), State Audit Office, employees of central or local governmental bodies and their family 

members. 

Below are listed concrete activities of the relevant government institutions in August- 

September 2012 which directly or indirectly contributed to an unequal pre-election 

environment. 

Illegal Interference in Journalistic Activities 

1. On July 26th of 2012 Georgian Media Legal Defense Center published a statement and 

reacted to the recent facts of interference with professional work of journalists. See 

the original text of the statement: 

9 

http://www.venice.coe.int/docs/2011/CDL-AD(2011)003rev-e.pdf 

10 

http://www.humanrights.ge/index.php?a=main&pid=14108&lang=eng 

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“The Georgian Media Legal Defense Center (GMLDC) reacts to the recent facts of 

interference with professional work of journalists. 

On July 22, 2012, men dressed in civilian uniforms did not allow journalists of Info 9, 

who had arrived in the village of Shaumani to report on local problems, to interview 

local population. 

According to media reports, during the visit of President Saakshvili in the village of 

Kheta, Khobi District, on July 25, 2012, journalists were not allowed to cover the 

event. 

On July 24, 2012, in Ozurgeti, journalists of the newspaper Guria News were not 

allowed to cover visit of the president in Guria. As men dressed in civilian uniforms 

explained to journalists, they were on a secured territory, whereas video footage 

illustrates that movement was not restricted for security reasons. Even if it had been, 

the restriction clearly did not apply to journalists since other media outlets covered 

the event. As representatives of Guria News allege, they deleted video materials that 

journalists had recorded. 11 

2. On July 27th of 2012 GYLA’s Georgian Media Legal Defense Center released 

statement responding to pressure on journalist Nodar Chachua of Channel 9 TV 

Company. See the original text of the statement: 

“GYLA‟s Georgian Media Legal Defense Center (GMLDC) responds to pressure on 

journalist Nodar Chachua of Channel 9 TV Company. According to the journalist, he 

was blackmailed by three unknown individuals, forcing him to provide information 

and in return, they promised financial reward. 

As stated by Nodar Chachua, the unknown individuals were demanding information 

about situation in the television company. They were also forcing him to engage in a 

11 http://www.humanrights.ge/index.php?a=main&pid=15266&lang=geo 

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sexual activity with a male employee of Channel 9. He also alleges that these 

individuals identified themselves as representatives of some “service”, who “take care 

of problems but also create big problems.” 

The journalist was able to state information that could help identify the individuals – 

a telephone number of calls that he received as well as a license plate and series of the 

vehicle that they drove. 

The GMLDC believes that the incident contains signs of offence envisaged by the 

Criminal Code. Therefore, it calls for a timely and immediate response in order to 

ensure personal safety of journalists and prevent of any similar facts in the future. 

Furthermore, this is not the first case of harassment of journalists and interference 

with their professional activities. GYLA calls on the law enforcement authorities once 

more to take operative and adequate further actions, to investigate into cases of 

harassment of journalists in a timely manner and prosecute those responsible for 

criminal actions following the investigation.” 12 

3. On July 30 Public Defender Giorgi Tugushi petitioned to the Chief Prosecutor of 

Georgia to launch investigation into threats leveled against journalist Nodar Chachua of TV 9. 

With this statement Public Defender responded to the July 27 reports released by media 

outlets 13 featuring Nodar Chachua speaking about threats against him. 

“The Public Defender believes that explanatory note delivered from Nodar Chachua contains 

the signs of crime punishable by the Criminal Code of Georgia and, accordingly, it is within 

the competence of the investigatory bodies to study the aforementioned fact and respond in 

an appropriate manner,” the statement by Public Defender reads. 14 

4. Journalist Tea Alaverdasvhili of Info 9 was injured in Gurjaani district 

administration‟s building. Journalist was trying to enter reception-room of the 


13 http://www.media.ge/stories/metskhrearkhiszhurnali 

14 http://humanrights.ge/index.php?a=main&pid=15260&lang=geo 

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governor to record an incident when police officer closed the door and injured fingers 

of the journalist‟s right hand. 

Journalist felt bad. Medical emergency brigade sent her to the medical clinic for 

examination. One of the finger bones is cracked and three of them are swollen. 

Traumatologist prescribed medicines to her. 

Today an incident happened in Gurjaani district administration‟s building. Georgian 

Dream‟s members tried to resolve the problem of a victimized citizen with deputy 

governor and it finished with controversy. District administration employees called 

police. 15 

5. At 7:00 pm on August 15, Davit Chavleishvili, cameraman of Info 9 in Lanchkhuti 

district, was beaten when performing his professional activities in front of a mini-bus 

near Lanchkuti municipal building. 

Journalist Nino Kheladze of INFO 9 told Humanrights.ge that on that day public 

servants and teachers were taken to Batumi concert by mini- bus: “According to our 

information, they were taken to see Veris Ubnis Melodiebi (Melodies from Vera 

District/ remake of a famous Georgian movie). We were video-recording this fact 

when the incident occurred. Lanchkuti police is investigating the case. Certain Zurab 

Kvirkvelia beat Dato but, I don‟t know yet who he is”. 16 

6. On August 18 President Mikheil Saakashvili visited two villages, Shukuta and Chibat, 

in Lanchkuti district. Local journalists were unable to record this meeting. 

Lali Imedaishvili head of Guria News bureau in Lanchkuti said to Humanrights.ge 

that Saakashvili met people in the yard of a public school in Shukuti. They did not 

allow me to enter with a photo camera but I managed to enter the meeting with a 

recorder so I could record the president‟s speech. My operator, Nodar Minadze, was 



18

standing away from the perimeter in front of an administrative building of Shukuti 

and was recording. As Nodar said, they hindered him from taking video. 

Nodar Minadze: “I was standing in front of the Shukuti administration building on an 

elevated place and taking a video. During this time a person dressed as a citizen came 

to me and dragged me from the elevated place. He said that taking videos was 

forbidden for me. I did not follow him. He said that I was out of mind and tried to 

grab my camera. He took me to the school yard and grabbed my camera. I asked him 

not to take my camera and in return for deleting video I took. He watched me delete 

the video. Then he left me alone. 

According to Humanrights.ge, Natia Bandzeladze contacted Guria News and informed 

them that president‟s press service did not hinder them. Lali Imedashvili says that 

President‟s security also contacted them and promised to recover the memory card. 

Several days ago Humanrights.ge wrote how an Info-9 journalist from Lanchkuti was 

hindered while doing his professional work. Zurab Kvirkvelia, husband of Nato 

Nucubidze who is a secretary of governor Davit Chavleishvili, physically touched him 

resulting in an injury. By recent information, Zurab Kvirkvelia was arrested for 20 

days via administrative code. 17 

7. On August 6 an incident occurred in the village Chantliskure of Kvareli district. 

Georgian Dream‟s majoritarian candidate Davit Kevkhisvili was holding meeting in 

the village populated with ethnic minorities; the National Movement‟s supporters 

joined the meeting and asked the agency Info-9 journalists to stop reporting. 

“I came, I love Georgia, and I am Mikheil Saakashvili‟s woman. The whole village 

should vote for Mikheil Saakashvili. Everyone who is here should vote for him. If 

they do not I will learn about them and make a list of those people and then they will 

see”, said a female supporter of the ruling party who was dressed in a National 

Movement t-shirt. Afterwards, she asked Info-9 Journalist Nino Khucishvili to stop 


19

eporting. “Everything is over, close that, stop talking” the woman said. Her friend 

also tried to hinder journalist‟s activities by putting hands on the camera-lens. 18 

8. On August 2, a National Movement activist physically and verbally assaulted 

information agency Info-9 journalist, Sulkhan Meskhidze, in Khulo district. As 

Meskhidze states, he heard from a local resident that the activist‟s name is Mamuli 

Mgeladze. Mgeladze works in a hotel that belongs to the vice speaker of the Georgian 

parliament Anzor Bolkvadze. 

As the journalist states, Mgeladze was dressed in a t-shirt with the slogan “I Love 

Georgia”. He assaulted the journalist and tried to disrupt an opposition meeting. 

“The incident happened near Khulo municipality building when I was covering 

Georgian Dream‟s meeting with voters. 10 young people came dressed in red t-shirts. 

They were shouting “I Love Georgia” and tried to disrupt the meeting. I went to the 

person who was shouting the loudest and started asking questions. He hit the 

microphone several times and then assaulted me both physically and verbally”, 

Meskhidze said. 

Sulkhan Meskhidze states that even though the incident was going on near the 

municipality building where police office is located, they did not respond to the 

incident. 19 

9. Activist of the United National Movement‟s Gurjaani office Guram Gurgenishvili 

physically assaulted journalist Natalia Sarkisashvili of the Information Center of 

Kakheti when she was performing professional activities; he hindered his work and 

seized video-camera. 

Journalist was video-recording citizens victimized by natural disaster in Velistsikhe 

village who complained about the government. National Movement‟s activist 

approached the journalist at that time and put hand on her camera. The journalist 

called upon him to stop interference in her professional activities and continued 



20

shooting the incident; suddenly the activist of the ruling party twisted the hand of the 

journalist and seized camera. Natalia Sarkisashvili tried to get back the camera but the 

activist hit her several times; the journalist was not seriously injured during the 

incident. 

According to the ICK, Guram Gurgenishvili works at a budget funded organization. 

Giorgi Botkoveli, coordinator of the National Movement‟s Kakheti regional office, 

said their activist would not have interfered in the journalist‟s activist. “I do not know 

what happened; but I definitely know that our activist would never have interfered in 

the professional activities of a journalist. Maybe the incident really happened, but he 

was not our activist,” Botkoveli said. 20 

10. In Akhmeta on the night of August 22, Studio GNS journalists Vasil Dabrundashvili 

and Bacho Buliskeria were beaten by people connected with Gia Lortkipanidze, 

assistant of Ministry of Internal Affairs, and his brother Davit, the head of the 

Constitutional Security Department (CSD) in Khaketi region. 

The journalists, from the Nana Lejava program Weekly Report, were trying to prepare 

a report on the issue of illegal deforestation and illegal sawmills in Akhmeta. Osiko 

and Nodar Chichiashvili, father and son, who own one of the sawmills physically 

assaulted the journalists. According to Vasil Dabrundashvili, they were assaulted 

when they were trying to record the area around the sawmill and illegally cut down 

trees. 21 

Motivated Oppressions where governmental Officials directly patipicipated 

1. On July 30th Georgian Young Lawyers Association (GYLA) released statement 

regarding the confiscation of property of 15 bank accounts of members of the 

20 http://humanrights.ge/index.php?a=main&pid=15344&lang=eng 


21

Georgian Dream‟s Lanchkhuti office and 15 participants of the door-to-door project 

on July 26-27th. See the original text of the statement: 

“According to the July 26-27 media reports, 15 bank accounts of members of the 

Georgian Dream‟s Lanchkhuti office and 15 participants of the door-to-door project 

were impounded. Furthermore, according to the information that we have, bank 

accounts of 4 activists of the Georgian Dream in Zugdidi were also impounded. 

As of now, owners of the bank accounts are unaware of grounds of impoundment, 

substantiation and evidence. They also explain that they have not received any 

corresponding decision. Thus, they currently lack opportunity to take any further 

legal actions. Georgian legislation recognizes several forms of impoundment that fall 

under the scope of different scopes of regulation. For instance, decision on 

impounding delivered on the basis of the Criminal Procedure Code can be appealed 

within only 48 hours, which further increases the importance of submitting the 

importance to interested parties in a timely manner. Currently we are unaware of the 

type of impounding applied, the case in relation to which it has been applied and 

corresponding legal grounds. Although impounding of bank accounts of the Georgian 

Dream‟s activists has been large-scale, as confirmed by media reports, currently none 

of the agencies have offered official statement to explain the ongoing developments. 22 

2. Georgian Dream member Akaki Taliashvili, inhabitant of Anaga village in 

Sighnaghi district, blames Giorgi Begiashvili, policeman of Tsnori department of 

Sighnaghi, for threatening. 

“District attorney Giorgi Begiashvili came and ordered me to leave Georgian Dream 

and the people connected with Ivanishvili. He asked me to leave the party, or they 

would blame me and I would get in trouble. I asked what they were blaming me for 

and Begiashvili told me that wheat and flour were lost in the mill and if I did not 


22

leave the party in time they would create problems for me”, Akaki Taliashvili told the 

Information Centre of Kakheti. 

They threatened to arrest Shalva Mosashvili, inhabitant of Vakiri village, because his 

wife Nana Mosashvili co-operates with the coalition Georgian Dream. According to 

Shalva Mosashvili, they threatened him based on the instruction of Nugzar 

Abulashvili-Sighnaghi district majoritarian candidate of the ruling party. 

“My wife Nana Mosashvili began to work with Georgian Dream in the Kardakari 

(“door-to door”) program several days ago. Three days later, they sent people to me 

and suggested to take my wife away from the coalition Georgian Dream but I refused. 

Then they sent a couple more men and threatened to arrest me. Two of them told me 

that it was Nugzar Abulashvili‟s order to stop resisting”, Shalva Mosashvili stated. 

The Information Centre of Kakheti could not contact policeman Giorgi Begiashvili. 

Majoritarian candidate Nugzar Abulashvili stated that he did not know anything 

about threats made to Shalva Mosashvili. ”I am not interested in it and I am not well 

informed about it. Go and ask those who told you about this”, Nugzar Abulashvili told 

the Information Centre of Kakheti. 23 

3. Giorgi Mosiashvili, head of Kakheti regional office of the political party Free 

Georgia, had his property sequestered because of unpaid fine. Mosiashvili told ICK 

that his fine was increased from 125 070 lari up to 134 025 lari together with 

property sequestration. 

“July 21 was deadline to pay fine but I did not pay it and they sequestered my 

property – everything that was registered on my name including bank accounts. 

Besides that they increased my fine up to 134 025 lari but I am still not going to 

pay the fine. We have appealed the verdict of the Tbilisi City Court at the Tbilisi 


23

Appeal Court but the latter did not change the initial verdict. So, now we are 

collecting materials and intend to appeal to the Strasbourg Court,” Giorgi 

Mosiashvili told ICK. 

On July 8, Tbilisi City Court found 17 citizens guilty in having illegally donated to 

political parties and fined them with five fold amount of the donation. 24 

4. Several citizens, who met and shook hands with Bidzina Ivanishvili in Chargali 

village, Dusheti district on July 14, were summoned to Zhinvali police. 

“It was Vazhaoba holiday dedicated to famous Georgian poet Vazha Pshavela] on July 14 

and Bidzina Ivanishvili arrived here. I live in Chargali and it was interesting for me to 

meet him. He shook hands with several people and greeted us. I attended the 

ceremonies and then returned home. A police officer visited me at home 4 days later and 

said I was summoned to police. Last week I went there and they asked the reason of my 

presence at the meeting. People in police uniforms, who did not introduce themselves, 

talked rudely with me. They warned me against going to the place where Ivanishvili 

arrives or I and my son could face problems; we would be arrested and even pleaagreement 

would not help us to leave prison,” a man from Chargali village told ICMM. 

His family members also confirmed information about police officer‟s visit in their house 

and his summoning to police station. 

ICMM got in touch with the Zhinvali police office but nobody commented on the fact 

there. 

Before that, supporters of the coalition Georgian Dream were also summoned to the 

police, who had participated in the assembly in Mtskheta on July 1. Head of Georgian 

Dream‟s Dusheti district office Dodo Chokheili reported that director of Kvesheti public 


24

school Kamila Khevsurishvili threatened coalition supporters to expel their children 

from school. 25 

5. According to Betkil Shukvani, he decided to leave the Olympic village and return to 

Georgia after a drunken Gia Udesiani requested to meet him. As Shukvani stated at a 

press conference on July 1 in Georgian Dream‟s office, he encountered problems after 

publicly endorsing Bidzina Ivanishvili. 

“It was already decided that I was going to the Olympics, so they couldn‟t do anything to 

replace me. On July 22 I met Bidzina Ivanishvili, posed for photos and said that I was 

standing with him and sympathized with his cause,” the judoka said. 

Information about their meeting was spread and, Shukvini said, at the airport, Georgian 

delegation members verbally abused him. 

“It was hard on me mentally. I tried to be mentally strong, I was in perfect shape,” 

Shukvani said. 

The judoka also talked about the Olympic Games, how in twelve years of competing he 

had never seen such poor referees. Shukvani claims that he asked sport minister Lado 

Vardzelashvili to react against the referees, but the minister didn‟t answer him. 26 

6. Tbilisi City Court is discussing the case of Melik Raisian, a member of the Georgian 

Dream. He is charged for swindle. 

A leader of the Georgian Dream Sozar Subari attended the process. He said the case is 

about an incident that occurred in Akhalkalaki in 2006. Subari clarified that Malvina 

Mataridze, a victimized person according to case materials, alleges that Raisian had 

extorted 38 000 lari from her in exchange of protecting her company. 



25

Subari believes Raisian is a victim of political persecution. He said Malvina Mataridze 

filed complaint against Raisian on May 25, 2012 after he publicly declared his support for 

the Georgian Dream. 

Sozar Subari supposes that court will judge sought Raisian in his absence in order to 

prevent him from taking part in the parliamentary elections as a candidate of the 

Georgian Dream. Sozar Subari said the process was scheduled in September but the Court 

decided to discuss it in August in a hurry. 27 

7. Law enforcement officers detained Giorgi Chincharauli, 30, activist of the Georgian 

Dream in Dedoplistskaro. 

Head of Georgian Dream‟s Dedoplistskaro district office Lekso Tamazashvili told ICK that 

police officers put Giorgi Chincharauli into the car without any explanations and took 

him to temporary detention setting in Signagi. 

“Giorgi Chincharauli is our activist. Today, he went to Dedoplistskaro from Gamarjveba 

village and police officers were waiting for him at the mini-bus. The witnesses say the 

police officers demanded him to get into the police car without explanation of the reason. 

He got into the car and police officers took him to Signagi temporary detention setting. 

The law enforcement officers allege Giorgi did not obey their orders and cursed them. So, 

they requested 90-day imprisonment for disobedience and verbal assault but our lawyer 

timely took up his case and Giorgi escaped imprisonment; they imposed 400 lari fine on 

him. He claims there was no controversy between him and police officers; they just asked 

him to get into the car,” Lekso Tamazashvili told ICK. 28 

8. The property and accounts of Cartu Bank‟s eight employees and the bank president 

Nodar Javakhisvili are sequestrated; allegedly they are donors of the coalition Georgian 



26

Dream. Nodar Javakhishvili told Interpressnews about it and added that the decision was 

unprecedented and politically motivated. 

As Javakhishvili said, although he and his colleagues went to the State Audit Office with 

official documents auditors did not take them into consideration. 

“I want to underscore the case of my colleague Irakli Meraia - he transferred money to 

the party‟s account three times: 100 lari, 200 lari and 33 thousand lari. It turned out that 

he could not clarify any of these transfers. Mogeladze could get suspicious about the 

transfer of 33 thousand lari but there was nothing strange if a man, who has salary of 

over 4 000 lari, donated 100 lari to the political party NodarJavakhishvili said. 

According to Nodar Javakhishvili, he was at the State Audit Office on August 8 and 

presented documents to prove that he had transferred compensation of 17 000 lari to the 

Georgian Dream which had received as a compensation for having been fired from the 

position of Bank‟s president. 

“I presented the document with the signature of Vladimer Ugulava – temporary manager 

of the Bank at. So, I do not know what is obscure in this transfer”, - Nodar Javakhishvili 

said. 

Javakhishvili added that the bank employees also contributed their compensations to the 

party. He said that the trial on this issue will be held at 10:00 am tomorrow. 

“We were summoned to the court. I am sure they will fine us with five hold of our 

donation - 1 100 000 lari and they will sell our property by public auction”, Nodar 

Javakhishvili said. 29 

9. On august 9 of 2012 Davit Beridze, resident of Atskuri Akhaltsikhe district, was 

arrested for not drinking a toast made to Mikheil Saakashvili. 


27

This fact was confirmed to Iverioni by Georgian Dream‟s Akhaltsikhe and Aspindza office 

representatives. According to them, George Beridze was at a neighbor‟s birthday party where 

one of the activists of the National Movement was present. He was one who offered a toast 

for the president. 

“Nobody really liked Saakashvili at the table except the activist but everyone was afraid so 

they drank this toast. But George Beridze didn‟t agree and he said that he would not toast for 

a person who destroyed his country. The next day Beridze was arrested and for 2 days and 2 

nights he was in the Atskuri police station.” – said to Iverioni to Georgian Dream Akhaltsike 

office representatives. 

Georgian Dream says that according to the information they collected, there was no physical 

abuse. They did not release him until they made him drink a toast to the president five times 

with different drinking vessels. 

They made him drink five times because the number five is the National Movement election 

number. They were laughing at Beridze” – said Georgian Dream. 

George Beridze does not belong to any opposition political party and he is apolitical. He and 

his family practice agriculture. 30 

10. Census of Georgian Dream‟s activists might start in Vani district. Georgian Dream‟s 

member Davit Sharashenidze from Chkvishi village blames district police inspector Otar 

Beltadze in his threatening. 

Sharashenidze said Chkvishi district inspector Otar Beltadze warned him about expected 

census and drug tests of Georgian Dream‟s activists. 

“Beltadze met me in the village and said he was to census and drug-test every member of the 

Georgian Dream including me. It was not warning, it was threatening,” Davit Sharashenidze 

said. 

Otar Beltadze works at the Vani district police department. We could not get in touch with 

him because initially different person answered our phone calls and then it was turned off. 


28

Nobody commented on the fact from the Vani district police yet. 31 

11. August 8, 2012 statement of the Georgian State Audit Office states “Since the beginning 

of 2012, Bidzina Ivanishvili and Kakhi Kaladze, individuals with declared political and 

electoral goals, have withdrawn unusually large amounts of cash from their bank accounts 

without indicating its intended use. Specifically, Mr. Ivanishvili withdrew 5,552,135 GEL in 

cash, while Kakhi Kaladze withdrew 3,388,992 GEL in cash. 

Given their political activities, and in order to determine the intended use of the cash, the 

State Audit Office (SAO) addressed letters to Bidzina Ivanishvili and Kakhi Kaladze 

requesting that they present documentation of how the cash had been spent. This was in 

order to ensure that the millions of lari that had been withdrawn were not being dispensed 

in violation of Georgian law. The SAO‟s request was rejected by both individuals. 

The SAO‟s main objective is to prevent violations rather than to enforce punitive measures. 

Therefore, the SAO has addressed a second letter to each of these individuals who have 

declared electoral goals, requesting that they return the large amounts of cash to their 

personal accounts to ensure the transparency of their political finances. 32 

12.On August 12 of 2012 Georgian Dream‟s supporter Kristopher Jangirashvili was arrested 

by police in village Arguni of Dusheti district after what he was placed in Mtskheta hospital. 

Right now he is in the intensive care unit. 

“ Dusheti police officers arrested Jangirashvili two days after his meeting with us. 

Jangirashvili was in preliminary detention setting in Dusheti. He was taken to a hospital by 

police. This fact is confirmed by the hospital personnel. Right now Kristophor Jangirashvili is 

in hospital. His ward is guarded by security officers. We were not allowed to see him. The 

doctor said he has high blood pressure, but people with blood pressure of 150-100 are not 

31 http://humanrights.ge/index.php?a=main&pid=15302&lang=eng 


29

generally placed in intensive care unit. Supposedly, he was physically abused. We cannot 

confirm or rule out anything because we were not allowed to see him. As for the second 

detainee, Janguli Jangirashvili, he was arrested for minor hooliganism. He already talked 

with a lawyer. Jangul Jangirashvili said he was arrested for political motives and does not 

plead guilty,” Tevdore Kariauli head of Georgian Dream‟s Dusheti office told Information 

Centre of Mtskheta-Mtianeti. 

Georgian Dream‟s supporters Kristopher and Jangul Jangirashvilis were arrested by MIA 

Dusheti police officers in Arguni village on August 12. 33 

13. Member of the Coalition Georgian Dream Nikoloz Kikilashvili, a resident of Tsnori small 

town in Signagi district, blames Soso Tsitsishvili, head of Kakheti regional department of the 

Constitutional Security Department of MIA and Besik Lekiashvili, deputy head of Signagi 

district police in his persecution. 

Nikoloz Kikilashvili told ICK that according to the instructions of Nugzar Abulashvili, 

Signagi district majoritiarian deputy of the National Movement, Tsitsishvili and Lekiashvili 

demanded him to leave Georgian Dream and Georgia; unless he obeys their demands, law 

enforcement officers threatened him with imprisonment. 

“They came to my home by jeep. They said they represented security service and head of 

Kakheti regional office of Security Service Soso Tsitsishvili was calling me to his office. I am 

not a criminal; I have not done anything wrong so I followed them; however, I did not 

expect them to verbally and physically assault me. They took me to a forest-park near 

cemetery where there are cottages. Soso Tsitsishvili, Beso Lekiashvili and one more person 

were waiting for me in one of the cottages; I did not know who the third person was; he did 

not say anything. Tsitsishvili and Lekiashvili told me to quit Georgian Dream and leave 

Georgia immediately. They gave me one week time to do it; otherwise they threatened me 

with imprisonment. I said I was not going to obey their demands. I spent about 20 minutes in 


30

the cottage; they verbally and physically assaulted me. It was ordered by Nugzar Abulashvili. 

Several days ago, Abulashvili demanded my 14-year-old son to take off Georgian Dream‟s t- 

shirt but he did not,” Nikoloz Kikilashvili told ICK. 

ICK got in touch with Nugzar Abulashvili but did not comment on the issue. “Come on; who 

obeys my orders?” Abulashvili said and cut off line. 

Abulashvili is head of Signagi district office of the United National Movement. 34 

14. Representative of the Poti youth branch of Georgian Dream Mashiko Melkadze said an 

employee of the Isle Settlement territorial entity within the City Hall Levan Sichinava tried 

to win her over. 

Mashiko Melkadze said Levan Sichinava requested her to give a list of Coalition members 

and supporters together with relevant information in exchange of well-paid job. 

“I thought you were a clever girl and why did you join the Georgian Dream?” Sichinava 

asked me and gave one day to think over his proposal,” Mashiko Melkadze told 

humanrights.ge. 

However, Melkadze used the one-day time not to think over the proposal but to prove the 

fact of gaining her over and recorded Sichinava‟s conversation. She said several people 

witnessed their conversation. Afterwards, Melkadze declined Sichinava‟s proposal and as 

Melkadze alleges she was threatened. 

We tried to get in touch with Levan Sichinava but he did not answer our phone calls. 

Mashiko Melkadze has seasonal job at a Poti passed firm Paliastomi – 2004. Short time ago, 

she was called from the office and informed about her dismissal because of her political 

affiliation. 35 



31

15. Although the government promised every political party will have equal election 

conditions in Georgia, oppression on the members and supporters of the Coalition Georgian 

Dream continues. 

State institutions fined Giga Bukia, majoritarian candidate of the Coalition Georgian Dream 

in Khobi district, with 190 000 lari and sequestered his property. “Three months ago I 

donated 35 000 lari to the Conservative Party to cover the expenses of the Coalition. State 

Audit Office summoned me as a witness and requested clarification about the origin of the 

donated money. I verbally clarified to them that I had a credit line at the Bank of Georgia 

and had transferred the money from there. I was ready to provide them with the Notary 

document on my property if they needed. However, I was not summoned to the SAO and 

received a summon directly from the court which notified me that State Audit Office had 

appealed to them alleging I had no income and could not prove origin of the sum. I provided 

the court with the Notary‟s notification on 200 000 lari which I owned. Judge gave only 7 

minutes to me and my lawyer to provide evidence; they found me guilty without asking any 

questions and fined me with 167 000 lari. I appealed the verdict at the Appeal Court but in 

vain; finally my fine has amounted to 190 000 lari.” 

Bukia, like many others, could not find justice in Georgia and has appealed to the European 

Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. 

While Bukia is waiting for the Strasbourg judgment, the state has sequestered his property 

and sold his house at the auction for 313 714 lari. Bukia said the price is much higher than 

his fine and requests to transfer remaining 120 000 lari to the account of the Georgian 

Dream. 

Giga Bukia has already informed local and international organization about his problems. 36 

16. Members of Gurjaani District Election Commission from the Conservative Party of 

Georgia and Industry Will Save Georgia stated that Nato Begashvili, the head of the Election 


32

Commission, does not allow them to work because of the political reasons. Both parties are 

united in the coalition Georgian Dream. 

Only those two members of the DEC do not have working places in the office. The Head of 

the District Election Commission refused them to study applications of the Precinct Election 

Commission membership candidates. 

According to the Article 25 of the Election Code of Georgia, the DEC members must elect 

PEC members before August 16. 

“I do not have access to full information though we are obliged to elect PEC members before 

August 16. Today the Head of the DEC said she will give us only part of the information 

without phone numbers of applications alleging it violates their rights. She said she could not 

give us their telephone numbers without their written permission. It was her clarification. 

She added we could see autobiographies but could not get their numbers. We need to know 

whom we will elect as Commission members before meeting”, Beka Maisuradze told the 

Information Centre of Kakheti. He is a member of the Gurjaani District Election Commission 

#12 from the Conservative Party. 

According to the Natalia Begashvili, the Head of the DEC, the Commission members can 

work in the hall. As for the applications PEC membership candidates, she added that these 

statements include personal information and Commission members are not allowed to get 

the information without their consent. 37 

17. On August 17, verbal controversy between the activists of the National Movement and 

Georgian Dream‟s supporters in Gomi village, Samtredia district turned into physical 

violence. 


33

The ruling party‟s majoritarian candidate Mikheil Nikoleishvili was in Gomi village together 

with the activists of the National Movement to oppose Kakhi Kaladze‟s supporters; they tried 

to fail the meeting. 

The verbal argument between opposition parties turned into physical controversy. Deputy 

head of Samtredia district police Amino Adamia also witnessed the incident from his car. 

Madina Tavadze said none of the National Movement‟s activists were Gomi residents and 

they were brought to the village to provoke incident. 38 

18. Sub-coordinator of the Georgian Dream‟s office in Kistauri village, Akhmeta district 

Teona Tatulashvili left the Coalition as a result of oppression. Georgian Dream‟s member 

Zaza Lagazidze told ICK that police officer Zakaria Beriashvili was intimidating Teona 

Tatulashvili. 

“She is a young girl with a little child. She worked as a sub-coordinator during two weeks 

and was agitating in the village. Police officer Zakaria Beriashvili, who is her neighbor, 

threatened her several times with firing her mother and brother-in-law from jobs unless she 

left the Coalition. He threatened him with creating some other problems too. Teona‟s mother 

works at a kindergarten and has a salary of 50 or 70 lari,” Zaza Lagazidze told ICK. 

ICK called Teona Tatulashvili but she said “I cannot say anything; I have left it [Coalition], 

good-bye.” 

Police officer Zakaria Beriashvili did not comment on the fact. 39 

19. Suliko Mikeladze –the oppositionist member of Khelvachauri municipal board states that 

he might be arrested. Oleg Mikeladze-the investigator of Khelvachauri police department 

contacted him by telephone and asked to appear at the questioning as whiteness in the case 

launched under Article 362 of the Criminal Code of Georgia. 



34

On August 23Suliko Mikeladze and Irakli Shavadze-his lawyer held a briefing in Batumi 

office of the Democratic Engagement Center regarding this case. 

According to Mikeladze, the investigation is underway about the appeal of oppositionist 

members of the municipal board filed to the municipal board on August 6. They protested 

the incident which occurred on Shuamtoba festival in Beshumi. The oppositionists declared 

in their statements that they would not attend the municipal board meetings. Vakhtang 

Kakhidze‟s name is among undersigned applicants (the municipal board member of 

Christian-Democratic Movement), but his signature is not in the statement at all. 

Consequently, the investigation is going to identify whether the signature was falsified or 

not. 

“I evaluate this fact as the fabricated blame of government to intimidate me. Hence I appeal 

to the non-governmental sector to monitor ongoing investigation process,” Suliko Mikeladze 

said. 

Irakli Shavadze is Suliko Mikeladze‟s lawyer. According to Shavadze joint statement of 

oppositionist members of the board and their signatures is not crime envisaged under Article 

362 of the Criminal Code of Georgia: “This statement is not an official document, 

consequently it does not give any right to Vakhtang Kakhidze and his rights are not violated. 

Hence the investigation on this fact refers to the political pressure on Mikeladze”. 40 

20. Assault on Kists in Telavi - In the evening of September 9, strangers physically assaulted 

young Kists from Pankisi Valley, after the Georgian Dream‟s assembly finished in Telavi. As 

a result of incident, Khizir Kushanashvili, 25 and Angel Borchasvili 22, got injured. 

Ambulance took injured people to Telavi hospital but doctors had not finished their 

examination, when police officers arrived at hospital and took injured people to police 

station for questioning. “We were at the assembly; afterwards we went to a concert; boys 

were standing nearby; when we approached them they started quarreling and we also 


35

injured in the incident. We were taken to hospital and then to police station for 

questioning”, said one of the injured people Angel Borchasvili to ICK. Nearly one hour later, 

injured persons were released from police office. Georgian Dream‟s members took Khizir 

Kushanashvili back to hospital because his health conditions worsened. Giorgi Svanishvili, 

surgeon at Telavi district hospital, said patients had minor injuries and there was no need to 

keep them in hospital for medical treatment. But Zurab Zviadauri sent Kushanashvili and 

Borchasvili for additional analysis in Tbilisi. On September 10, Zurab Zviadauri told ICK that 

after the Coalition‟s assembly finished in Telavi, strangers had assaulted 8 more young people 

besides Khizir Kushanashvili and Angel Borchashvili; though they did not receive serious 

injuries: “10 people were beaten; some of them have bruises on the eyes, others have lips and 

head injured; everybody, except Kushanashvili and Borchashvili, had light injuries and did 

not apply to hospital for help,” Zurab Zviadauri said and added that medical examinations in 

Tbilisi diagnosed brain concussion on Khizir Kushanashvili. “Tomography and other tests 

showed that he has acute form of brain concussion. Doctors recommended to stay in bed and 

take medical treatment; he is already at home,” Zviadauri said. Criminal case was launched 

on the incident. Telavi police is investigating the case. Law enforcement officers have not 

arrested anybody yet. Deputy Secretary of the National Security Council Tamar 

Kintsurashvili commented on the fact and said investigation is going on the assault of young 

people and law enforcement agencies will adequately respond to it. 41 

21. Armed people broke into the houses of Georgian Dream‟s supporters in Kvareli On 

September 10 armed people broke into the houses of the Georgian Dream‟s supporters in 

Tkhilistskaro village, Kvareli district. “It was about 2:00 am. They jumped over the closed 

gate; they were five and had guns. One of them approached me lying in the bed and asked 

why we all had left village?” Elza Tigashvili told ICK. On September 9 she and her neighbors 

went to Telavi to attend the Georgian Dream‟s assembly. “They made my husband get up and 

41 http://www.youtube.com/watchv=1nxStGF8CME&feature=player_embedded 

36

said they were from police. I asked them to allow me to get up but they ordered to stay in 

bed; he had pointed gun at me. They asked what was happening there? We said we had 

attended Ivanishvili‟s assembly and asked what they needed from us. He said they were 

looking for Shorena. There was no Shorena in our house. They had already visited our 

neighbors and told them they were looking for Eliza; in the other family they said they were 

looking for Temo. They visited every family to scare people. Similar fact had never occurred 

before and why it coincided with the assembly. Everybody had weapon except one. They 

inquired why we had all left the village. We said everybody had gone to the assembly except 

old people; we had travelled there by three mini-buses and some of us were even standing on 

feet in the bus,” Elza Tigashvili said. “When they broke into the house my child got shocked; 

he started screaming. I also screamed and told them it was my own choice whom to vote on 

the Election Day. They said they did not care about votes; they were looking for Shorena. 

They were asking stupid questions and visited almost every family in the village. Only I dare 

to speak about this incident; people are scared and do not speak. I can recognize the person 

who had gun; he was a young boy. I asked him what was the matter and he said they would 

kill my husband. I said I wanted to get up but he ordered to stay in bed and cursed,” Elza 

Tigashvili said. Her neighbor Ketevan Gagnidze also confirmed the information about the 

attack on the families late at night on September 10. “We support Georgian Dream but we 

got afraid; you know what is happening regarding this election. My husband looked out 

when they called; he had stoke and has not been able to speak for four months. The armed 

person asked him the surname; they did not do any harm to us and left saying they had 

mixed up the family. They inquired Elza‟s house. They had visited some other families in our 

neighborhood. They returned in the morning and asked me to boil coffee for them. Having 

drunk it they left; they spoke perfect Georgian,” Ketevan Gagnidze told ICK. According to 

the information spread in the village, the armed people were looking for certain Shorena. 

However ICK found out that the strangers had not entered the families whose members had 

37

not attended the Georgian Dream‟s assembly. Kvareli district police has not launched 

criminal case on the fact. 42 

22. Posters seized from the Georgian Dream‟s activists in Kvemo Magaro On September 6, 

agitation posters were seized from the activists of the Georgian Dream Nino Gugashvili and 

Giorgi Mchedlishvili in Kvemo Magaro village, Signagi district when they were distributing 

them among people; they were verbally and physically assaulted. Member of the Signagi 

municipal board from the Kvemo Magaro village Giorgi Babakishvili participated in the 

harassment. “We were four and were distributing posters; suddenly two cars approached us, 

several people got out of them and asked who we were. We said we did not force anybody to 

take our posters and we were just informing people that on September 9 Bidzina Ivanishvili 

was holding assembly in Telavi. They seized our posters; they slapped one of our boys; they 

struck posters into my head and cursed. They warned us against coming to the same place 

next time and left the place,” Nino Gugashvili said and added strangers drove away by Giorgi 

Babakishvili‟s car. The latter denied the accusations of the Georgian Dream‟s activists. “I have 

not beaten anybody. I do not know who they were; I was not there,” Babakishvili said. A 

witness of the incident Galina Arabuli confirmed the activists‟ statement: “I was filling in 

water in the street. Children were walking with posters. They stopped cars and seized posters 

from them. I asked them why they were seizing posters but he did not answer. They put 

posters in the car-booth and drove away,” Arabuli said. 43 

23. Georgian Dream‟s information posters torn down in Gurjaani district On September 9, 

coalition Georgian Dream had scheduled assembly in Telavi. On September 8 Coalition 

activists placed announcement posters in the region and invited people to the assembly. In 

the same evening, almost every poster was torn down in the Gurjaani district villages. 

Residents of Chandari village told ICK that National Movement‟s activists had done it. 

42 http://www.youtube.com/watchv=eCEMWA3NuJA&feature=player_embedded 

43 http://www.youtube.com/watchv=Nr7Zys3b83Q&feature=player_embedded 

38

“Yesterday, late in the evening, young people were walking here and they tore down the 

Georgian Dream‟s posters. They destroyed them everywhere. I know they are National 

Movement‟s activists; I personally know them; they had pasted the UNM‟s posters several 

days before,” the witness said. 

24. Petrol stations did not work in Gurjaani – On September 9, people wishing to attend the 

Georgian Dream in Telavi, faced some problems; they could not purchase fuel for their cars. 

Petrol stations, including Lukoil, did not work from the early morning. Operators clarified 

the stations did not receive enough electricity supply. In fact the district received electricity 

supply without any delay on September 9 and neither JSC Kakheti Energo Distribution 

Company confirmed the information about any delays. 44 

25. Attempt to interfere on rehabilitation grounds – unequal pre-election conditions in 

Telavi –On September 8, on Saturday, National Movement held an assembly in Erekle Square 

in Telavi. Rehabilitation works had been underway for two months in the town but before 

the UNM‟s assembly they cleaned streets from construction ruins and traffic movement was 

free all day long. On September 9, when Georgian Dream held assembly in the same place, 

construction technique was brought back to Erekle Square and they threw construction 

materials on the roads. “We are reconstructing the façade but we have stopped now. I do not 

know why they stopped us; it is our job,” a driver of the truck told ICK. “The administration 

ordered me to stay here. My working hours finished and but how can I go from here? We 

have stuck here for 2-3 hours,” the second driver said. Gela Samkharauli, majoritarian 

candidate of the Georgian Dream in Telavi, said all roads to the Telavi center were free 

during the UNM‟s assembly on the previous day but rehabilitators renewed their works on 

44 http://www.youtube.com/watchv=2etVPGypYkY&feature=player_embedded 

39

Sunday. “The purpose is to create discomfort for our supporters and hinder our assembly,” 

the candidate said. 45 

26. Officers of the MIA and Defense Ministry video-recorded Georgian Dream‟s assembly in 

Telavi On September 9, officers of the MIA and Defense Ministry video-recorded the 

Georgian Dream‟s assembly in Telavi. The people equipped with modern video-cameras did 

not introduce themselves; they were recorded the faces of the people who attended the 

assembly. One of the cameramen Mamuka Gaganidze works at the press-center of the 

Defense Ministry and he received instructions directly from the acting Kakheti regional 

governor Giorgi Sibashvili. A lot of representatives of the info9.com worked during the 

assembly very actively. Reportedly this agency was created in parallel to the pro-opposition 

news agency Info9.ge and their representatives implement the instructions of the National 

Movement. 46 

27. Georgian Dream‟s members were arrested in Kvareli – On September 4, Levan 

Khutsishvili and Zaza Rostiashvili-the members of the coalition Georgian Dream were 

arrested in Kvareli late at night. “I was at my friend Zaza Rostiashvili‟s place last evening; we 

were having dinner on his balcony. A boy insulted us from the street and we also insulted 

him back. He is Bacho Nikolozishvili, relative of the National Movement‟s representatives. 

He called police and suddenly 4 police officers rushed into the house and arrested us. Judge 

charged us under two articles of the Criminal Law – minor hooliganism and disobedience 

though we did not disobey police officers. When they entered we followed them to the 

police station. The sanction imposed by the judge was either 90-day administrative 

imprisonment or 400 lari bail; we preferred the fine and were released under the bails of 400 

lari,” Levan Khutsishvili told ICK. 47 

45 http://www.youtube.com/watchv=GJ3lXIEg1M0&feature=player_embedded 

46 http://www.youtube.com/watchv=58fnuZpRJzI&feature=player_embedded 

47 http://www.youtube.com/watchv=wuV8MlJv978&feature=player_embedded 

40

28. Free Georgia‟s regional office was robbed in Telavi – On September 3, office of the Free 

Georgia‟s regional office was robbed in Telavi center. Regional coordinator of the political 

party Giorgi Mosiashvili told ICK that robbers had taken computer with complete working 

information in it from the office. Telavi district police is investigating the fact but they have 

not arrested anybody yet. 48 

29. Incident in Lagodekhi an incident occurred between the members of the Georgian 

Dream and National Movement in Pona village in Lagodekhi district. Georgian Dream‟s 

members said the UNM‟s majoritarian candidate arrived at the Georgian Dream‟s assembly 

though the ruling party claimed this meeting was organized by them and Coalition members 

made problems for them. “These people, in those t-shirts, wish to return you to the past with 

automatic guns and old system where you will not have pensions, salaries, allowances; you 

are enemies, of course,” the UNM‟s majoritarian candidate Gia Gozalishvili told the Coalition 

members. “I will prove that you are enemies. These people, Georgian Dream is enemy of 

Georgia‟s independence, you must remember it. You have exceeded all boundaries,” 

Lagodekhi district majoritarian candidate Guram Kakalashvili said. “They learned that we 

had planned meeting today and they rapidly arrived here and met people. Our zone 

coordinators are here; they had mobilized people but we did not want to escalate the tension 

and left the area,” Georgian Dream‟s member Gaga Gambashidze said. 49 

30. Kvareli district governor blamed in oppression Resident of Chikaani of Kvareli district 

Berdia Gezelishvili, who supports Coalition Georgian Dream, blames Kvareli district 

governor Besik Zandarashvili and attorney of the village territorial entity Temur Osiashvili 

in oppression. “District governor Besik Zandarashvili attacked me from the car and said why 

I was distributing Georgian Dream‟s booklets. I told him I had right to inform people with 

my opinion though it was different from his views. Several years ago, locals cut down trees in 

a small part of forest to use them as fire wood in winter and he reminded me of this case and 

48 http://www.youtube.com/watchv=UULDowjhgY4&feature=player_embedded 

49 http://www.youtube.com/watchv=MU7JE3YLZz4&feature=player_embedded 

41

said I would have to pay the fine for it now. Besik Zandarashvili threatened my relative with 

firing form job; he works at a ministry. Majoritarian candidate Davit Kevkhishvili was 

meeting local population. After the meeting village attorney Temur Osiashvili told me not to 

do anything after what they would not forgive me after the elections. Afterwards, my 

neighbor Guram Gezelishvili insulted me and threatened with dragging me out of my house. 

National Movement‟s members deprived his father from the status of the sought in exchange 

of gaining votes for the elections,” Berdia Gezelishvili said. Witness confirmed part of his 

story. “Guram Gezelishvili cursed and threatened him with killing that night,” Guliko 

Kvachrelishvili, resident of Chikaani village said. Kvareli district governor Besik 

Zandarashvili did not comment on the accusation. 

31. Patrol police officers seized car from the Georgian Dream‟s Majoritarian Candidate in 

Telavi Patrol police seized car from Gela Samkharauli, Georgian Dream‟s majoritarian 

candidate in Telavi. The car incident occurred in Tbilisi in the evening of September 11. As a 

result of the incident Samkharauli‟s car was slightly damaged; the parties did not have 

complaints abouteach other but police took Samkharauli‟s car to the penalty lot. Gela 

Samkharauli said while police officers were inspecting his documents, they said he did not 

deserve even a fine but after they learned who he was, they took the car to the penalty 

station. On August 10, police officers took the car of Spartak Zviadauri, brother of the 

Georgian Dream‟s majoritarian candidate Zurab Zviadauri, to the Telavi penalty station for 

disobedience. Before that, strangers put sand in Zurab Zviadauri‟s car in Gori penalty station 

that damaged the car. It is noteworthy that patrol police massively fines activists and 

supporters of the Georgian Dream for the last one month. ICK studied several cases in 

Lagodekhi district and found out that fined drivers had not breached traffic laws though the 

patrol police fined them. 50 

50 http://www.youtube.com/watchv=dQWBirWKEt8&feature=player_embedded 

42

32. Ledi Natadze, member of the election commission of Odzisi village precinct # 25 in 

Dusheti district from the Georgian Dream, was fired from job. Natadze was teaching 

Georgian Language and Literature in Odzisi Public School. “They had to resume labor 

contracts with teachers in September. I was already told that they are not going to continue 

my contract while all other teachers will have their contracts resumed. This fact is connected 

with my political affiliation. On August 26, Coalition Georgian Dream nominated me for the 

commission membership of PEC # 25 in Odzisi village. Presumably they fired me for that 

reason. There cannot be any other reason. I am experienced teacher; I have worked at school 

for 40 years; I have never been rebuked in my life. Although I am 69, there are some teachers 

at school who are older than I am and nobody had fired them,” Ledi Natadze told ICMM. 

“New labor contracts were not signed with any teacher yet. I do not know what will happen. 

I can assure you that either I will leave school together with Ledi Natadze or we both remain 

here to work,” Roena Kvitsiani, director of Odzisi Public School told ICMM. 51 

33. Teacher threatened with firing from school-Teacher of the Arguni village Public School 

in Dusheti district Izo Khutsishvili was threatened with firing from school because of 

meeting with the leaders of the Georgian Dream. “On August 12, head of Georgian Dream‟s 

Dusheti organization Tedo Kariauli and other leaders of the Coalition visited our village. I 

also arrived at the meeting. A lot of people were gathered including the supporters of the 

National Movement. Tedo Kariauli said that teachers used to have twice higher salaries 

during communist regime than they have now. He added that if there was any teacher at the 

meeting, they could confirm his allegation. I will repeat now what I replied to him at the 

meeting: “we did not have higher salaries during communist regime but we had various 

privileges: we received 50 lari per month to buy fire-wood; if any teacher rented a house, the 

government paid the rent.” Next day, director of the Arguni Public School Nana 

Mchedlishvili visited me at home and asked where I was on the previous day. She said people 

from the Dusheti district administration had called her and requested to warn her teacher to 


43

avoid meeting Georgian Dream‟s representatives and keep silence or she might lose a job. I 

did not agitate there. I have told you what I said during the meeting. Entire village is scared. 

In fact, we cannot say a word. Several days ago, a postman told me he is invited to the district 

administration to meet Zurab Otiashvili; the postman said they asked him who I support 

(Zurab Otiashvili is head of Dusheti District Election HQ of the National Movement). I have 

been teaching at the primary school for 47 years. Although we already started working at 

school, new labor contracts were not signed with us yet,” Izo Khutsishvili said. 52 

34. Mother of the TV-9‟s journalist fired from job Esma Alaverdashvili, mother of TV- 

Company TV9‟s journalist Thea Alaverdashvili was fired from job. Esma Alaverdashvili was 

director of Gurjaani Art School. According to official document, reorganization in the Art 

School was implemented based on the Gurjaani municipal board‟s resolution # 57 issued on 

September 7, 2012. The district municipal board annulled registration of the Art School and 

subordinated it to the Union of Music Schools. The decree does not indicate why it was 

necessary to annul its registration. On September 7, Gurjaani municipal board fired Esma 

Alaverdashvili based on the resolution # 59. Acting chairman of the municipal board 

Aleksandre Sirbilashvili signed the resolutions. From August 17, 2012 chairman of the 

municipal board Zakaria Iaganashvili has been on holiday and he is head of Giorgi 

Gviniashvili‟s election HQ, UNM‟s majoritarian candidate in Gurjaani. Esma Alaverdashvili 

said she was fired because her daughter Thea Alaverdashvili works for TV9. “Nine people 

were working in the art school. Besides being a director, I worked as a teacher too. They 

fired only me as a result of reorganization,” Esma Alaverdashvili told ICK. Her monthly 

salary was 230 lari at the art school and her labor contract was due to expire at the end of 

December 2012. It is noteworthy that Esma Alaverdashvili was on holiday since July 25 and 


44

on July 29 she was called back and warned about planned reorganization and possible 

resignation. 53 

35. On September 16-17 strangers shot four times near Irakli Garibashvili‟s house in 

Dedoplistskaro, who is member of the Georgian Dream. Irakli Garibashvili‟s parents gave 

police officers the state numbers of the cars from where gunshots were made. However, law 

enforcement officers have not arrested anybody yet. “On September 16, at 10:00 pm I heard 

four gun-shots; I immediately went outside and saw a car which drove towards the town. I 

saw the young man sitting next to the driver. The car was green with state number LEL 188. 

We called police; they arrived, searched the territory but could not find bullet cartridges. I 

made explanation statement; my neighbor Mikheil Bakhutashvili also confirmed that he had 

heard gun-shots but had not looked out. Next day, at 4:50 I again heard four gun-shots and 

went outside immediately; it was yellow mini-bus with white roof; it was new vehicle and 

was moving too fast; I could not detect the state number,” Irakli Garibashvili‟s mother 

Marina Koranashvili told ICK. Tariel garibashvili was attorney of Tsiteltskaro village 

territorial entity in Dedoplistskaro district administration; however he was fired after 

Bidzina Ivanishvili joined politics. Currently he supports Georgian Dream. 54 

36. Chairman of the PEC N 2 in Kazbegi resigned -On September 3, ICMM reported that 

chairpersons of the PEC # 1 in Stepantsminda and PEC # 4 in Akhaltsikhe village, 

Stepandtsminda district Givi Khutsishvili and Nona Gujaraidze resigned based on their 

resignation letters. The reason of their resignation was health problems. “After being elected 

as a chair of Stepandtsminda PEC #1 my health conditions worsened. I have to take medical 

treatment and will not be able to appear at the commission every day; busy working 

schedule will not be good for my health either. So I decided to resign,” Givi Khutsishvili said. 

Nona Gujaraidze, chairwoman of the PEC # 4 in Akhaltsikhe village also named health 

problems as a reason of her resignation. Givi Khutsishvili and Nona Gujaraidze were elected 

53 http://www.ick.ge/ka/articles/12523‐1‐n‐6.html 


45

for the position on August 26. According to the ICMM, commission chairpersons refused to 

implement the instructions of the government and decided to resign. 55 

37. Georgian Dream‟s posters painted in Stepantsminda – On September 5, employees of the 

cleaning service painted posters of the Georgian Dream in Stepantsminda. Head of Georgian 

Dream‟s Stepantsminda district organization Shalva Eloshvili told ICMM about it. “All 

posters, which were placed in the center of Stepantsminda, were painted in white. I did not 

witness this fact personally but we know that employees of the town cleaning service did it,” 

Eloshvili said. “Coalition Georgian Dream placed their election posters in the places allocated 

by the District Election Commission. The law prohibits damage of election posters; it is 

violation of Article 46 of the Election Code,” lawyer of the Georgian Dream‟s Stepantsminda 

office Manana Marsagishvili said. Three witnesses confirmed with the ICMM that employees 

of the cleaning service had painted the posters. Head of Stepantsminda cleaning service 

Elguja Alibegashvili did not comment on the fact. 56 

38. Attempt to fail pre-election meeting – National Movement‟s activists tried to fail the 

meeting of the Georgian Dream‟s majoritarian candidate Zakaria Kutsnashvili in Zhebota 

village, Tianeti district. Activists of the ruling party arrived at the meeting in the UNM‟s t- 

shirts. Among them was former police officer Alika Pitskhelauri who did not allow Zakaria 

Kutsnashvili to introduce voters with their election program. “First volume of Dachi‟s Fairy 

Tales finished. Why should I stop? It is not your business. I am not irritating anybody. Shall I 

ask you permission where to go?! Georgia is a country where everybody has right to express 

his opinion. I am not arguing or insulting anybody,” Alika Pitskhelauri told Georgian 

Dream‟s supporters. “You are already insulting people by creating similar situation here. Let 

us listen to the majoritarian candidate. Shall we listen to your remarks?” the voters told him. 

Law enforcement authorities have not yet launched investigation about the incident which 

occurred in Duluzaurebi village, Tianeti district in August. Then, Badur Poladishvili, who 


56 http://www.youtube.com/watchfeature=player_embedded&v=VYPuVZKIjwk 

46

presumably is activist of the National Movement, insulted supporters of the Georgian Dream 

and INFO9‟s journalists. Poladishvili was driving car very fast in the district where Georgian 

Dream‟s majoritarian candidate was supposed to meet voters. Poladishvili was there together 

with two people. He got irritated when INFO9‟s video-camera recorded him. “Why are you 

shooting me? Do you want me to take off and show you…?” Poladishvili shouted at INFO9‟s 

journalists. 57 

39. Georgian Dream‟s activists insulted –On September 7, an incident occurred in Bulachauri 

village, Dusheti district. Young people from red Jeep insulted activists of the Georgian Dream 

gathered in the village center. The car belongs to Choporti village governor Nugzar 

Lapanashvili. “Our activists were standing in front of a shop in Bulachauri center. Since Eldar 

Iarajuli and Lado Zurabashvili were wearing Georgian Dream‟s t-shirts, young people sitting 

in the car insulted them. The locals recognized the abusers. They live in Choporta village. 

The car belongs to Nugzar Lapanashvili, governor of Choporta village in Dusheti district,” 

Georgian Dream‟s coordinator Nino Kharanauli said. Nugzar Lapanashvili denied the 

accusation in his conversation with ICMM. 58 

40. Head of National Movement‟s HQ Beat INFO9‟s cameraman head of the National 

Movement‟s election HQ in Kazbegi Guram Jamarjashvili physically assaulted INFO9‟s 

cameraman Avto Sujashvili when the latter was implementing his professional duties. INFO 

9 was covering how people were mobilized to send to the National Movement‟s assembly in 

Mtskheta on September 9. “Why do you irritate people?”Guram Jamarjashvili asked the 

cameraman and hit him in the face. Jamarjashvili did not comment on the issue. 59 

41. MP physically assaulted supporters of the Georgian Dream –On September 22, MP from 

the National Movement in Signagi district Nugzar Abulashvili beat supporters of the 

57 http://www.youtube.com/watchfeature=player_embedded&v=goa7qeRqDb4 



47

Georgian Dream Gela and Vakhtang Darchiashvilis in Tsnori of Signagi district. At the 

moment, Nugzar Abulashvili is head of the election HQ of Levan Bezhashvili, Signagi district 

majoritarian candidate of the ruling party. As a result of the incident Gela Darchiashvili was 

injured. He was provided with medical aid at Arkimede medical center in Tsnori. “I was 

going to the Georgian Dream‟s office. Nugzar Abulashvili was standing next to the police 

office together with several people. He called me to approach him. He asked “didn‟t they 

[government] transfer you 5 000 lari for the operation? “ I agreed and suddenly he started 

insulting me. “Why are you wearing Georgian Dream‟s t-shirt then?” then he hit me. 

Initially they beat my brother and dragged him away; then they beat me. Nugzar personally 

beat me. They pushed me down and kicked me claiming they were going to damage my liver 

which they had cured. Then they saw our boys approaching us, they got into the car and ran 

away. I did not count, they were five or six,” Gela Darchiashvili told ICK. Head of Arkimede 

medical center Nukri Karalashvili said Gela Darchiashvili was examined and he had light 

bruises on several places. He was dismissed from the clinic on the same day. MP Nugzar 

Abulashvili refused to comment on the incident. Neither Giorgi Botkoveli, Kakheti regional 

coordinator of the National Movement commented on the fact. Criminal case was launched 

at the Signagi district police. Law enforcement officers have not arrested anybody regarding 

this incident. 60 

42. Six young people beaten in Gurjaani On September 23, at night, Georgian Dream‟s 

supporters Dachi Datuashvili, Giorgi Kakhidze, Nika Jokhadze, Vitali Khatiashvili and Giorgi 

Gergidze were beaten in Gurjaani. “At about 24:00 we were checking election posters of the 

Georgian Dream‟s majoritarian candidates in Kotekhi, a district in Gurjaani. Somebody had 

torn them down on the previous day. We wanted to replace the damaged posters and to find 

those people who had damaged posters. At that moment, white mini-bus with state number 

DIT-022 and two other cars approached and members of the National Movement Jemal 

Sepiashvili, Misho Gviniashvili, Tornike Sibashvili and others [we do not know their names] 


48

got out of the cars. They started beating and insulting us and we video-recorded it. They 

were holding baseball bats. So we had to leave the area. We arrived at the Georgian Dream‟s 

office but cars were moving around the office; state number of one of them was BUM 100. 

People sitting in the cars were insulting us; they damaged two wheals of our car Ford Transit 

GVG 304; they cut it by knife,” head of youth branch of the Georgian Dream‟s Gurjaani 

office Dachi Datuashvili said. Young members of the Coalition were not injured as a result of 

the incident. 

On September 24, at about 12:00 pm, member of the youth branch of the Georgian Dream‟s 

Gurjaani office Nika Patarkalishvili was assaulted near the resort Akhtala in Gurjaani. As a 

result of the incident Nika Patarkalishvili had brain concussion. Ambulance took him to 

Gujraani medical center and he is still taking medical treatment. Georgian Dream‟s 

majoritarian candidate in Gurjaani Manana Berikashvili said young people, who beat 

Georgian Dream‟s supporters, were either relatives of the governmental officials or public 

servants. “They were Otar Imerlishvili – employee of the Gurjaani district administration 

and nephew of Davit Abazashvili, head of Gurjaani district office of the Criminal Police; 

Mishiko Gviniashvili (cousin of Giorgi Gviniashvili, National Movement‟s majoritarian 

candidate in Gurjaani), Jemal Sepiashvili, Temur Butsashvili – specialist of the Youth Affair 

Service at the district administration and Tornike Sibashvili, nephew of the acting Kakheti 

regional governor Giorgi Sibashvili and son of Gocha Sibashvili, deputy head of Gurjaani 

police department,” Manana Berikashvili said. Gurjaani police started investigation of the 

young people‟s physical assault. Investigator questioned Manana Berikashvili and head of 

Georgian Dream‟s Gurjaani office Giga Beradze; they have not questioned victimized young 

people yet. 61 

43. 28.09.2012 -Ozurgeti regional court imposed fine of 2000 lari on Tamar Malazonia in her 

absense. Tamar Malazonia supports Georgian Dream. Judge Levan Nutsubidze fined 


49

Malazonia according to the Article 45 of the Administrative Law and Article 79 of the 

Election Code. 

Malazonia is obliged to pay the fine within 30 days. According to Malazonia she was fined 

for having performed political agitation as a public servant: “They concluded the briefing I 

held in the Georgian Dream‟s Ozurgeti office was political agitation and fined me in my 

absense”. 62 

44. Unequal Conditions for Political Parties – Office of an Opposition Political Party is 

Associated with Problems. The thing is that ruling party opened 10 new offices in Rustavi 

before elections. Their HQs with the slogan, flags and election number 5 of the political 

party are functioning in almost every district of the city. One of the necessary requirements 

for the fair elections is to create equal conditions for all parties participating in the election 

marathon. Various facts demonstrate that those principles are breached in the regions (and 

not only in the regions). Offices of political parties are one of those problematic issues of the 

fair election environment. 

Opposition parties face problems to rent offices almost in every region. When National 

Movement opened 10 offices in the city, Coalition Georgian Dream‟s Gardabani HQ speaks 

about reasons why Gardabani residents refused them to rent their houses. 63 

45. Police officers massively fine members of Georgian Dream in Kakheti. Law enforcement 

officers fined Merab Ivanashvili from Lagodekhi 340 lari in two days. 

“We were traveling from Lagodekhi to Ulianovka village in three or four cars; I was last in 

the row. I saw police cars following me in the mirror. I did not break traffic rules; I was 

driving at the speed of 60 km per hour. Soon, police officers demanded me to stop the car; 

they said I had crossed the axial line but I actually had not done this. Five people were sitting 



50

in my car and everybody confirmed that I had not breached the rules but police officers 

fined me 200 lari. On August 7, I was stopped at petrol-station in Kavshiri village and they 

fined me 100 lari. They accused me of crossing the axial line though I had not because I 

knew that the police car was following me. The next day I was in Georgian Dream‟s office in 

Lagodekhi. Having left office, I went to the village; the police followed and stopped me. I 

had passengers in the car; everybody had their seat belts on but police officer accused us of 

not; as a result I was fined 40 lari,” Merab Ivanashvili told ICK. 

Police officers fined another member of Georgian Dream, Kakhaber Kevlishvili, 400 lari in 

Lagodekhi. Two administrative protocols were drawn up on Kevlishvili for having 

incorrectly outrun cars. “I told police officers I had not outrun any car and that they were 

fining me illegally. They said I could complain about their protocol anywhere I wished,” 

Kakhaber Kevlishvili said. 

Another member of Georgian Dream, Gia Bitsadze, was fined 100 lari in Lagodekhi. “I was 

blamed for crossing the axial line when I had not done it. But I cannot prove the opposite,” 

Bitsadze said. 

According to the ICK‟s information, on August 5 and 9 police officers fined Levan Khvistani, 

member of Georgian Dream‟s Telavi office. They drew up administrative protocol on him 

alleging he did not have permission to transfer his car from petrol to auto-gas and for having 

breached traffic rules. 

Representatives of the Kakheti Department of the Patrol Police and the Kakheti regional 

MIA department did not comment on the massive fining of Georgian Dream‟s members in 

the region. 

None of the people who were fined have sued the imposed administrative protocols. They 

said it is useless because it will not change anything. 

According to statistical data, in 2010-2011 Telavi, Gurjaani and Kvareli district courts have 

not annulled any administrative protocols drawn by patrol police officers. 64 


51

46. When representatives of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly and other international 

organizations suggest the government of Georgia to improve election environment, 

oppression on the Georgian Dream‟s members continues. Varlam Khatridze, member of the 

Coalition‟s human rights committee got in touch with for.ge and informed us about concrete 

facts of intimidation and oppression on Coalition members. 

Khatridze said besides State Audit Office, police departments also summon members and 

supporters of the Coalition Georgian Dream for interrogation and psychologically oppress 

them. For.ge interviewed Varlam Khatridze on the issue. 65 

47. Poor people donate several dozen thousand lari to the ruling party – National Movement 

and the State Audit Office does not pay attention to it. However, the latter is observing 

donations to other political parties and imposes sanctions on them immediately. 

SAO fights against donators of the Georgian Dream with particular severity and seizes and 

sells their properties. Properties of both large and small donators are seized equally. Head of 

Georgian Dream‟s election administration in Poti Beso Jojua faced this problem. 

Beso Jojua ordered an advertising subtitle in the cable TV-station which announced time and 

place of Eka Beselia‟s presentation as a majoritarian candidate of the Georgian Dream in Poti. 

He paid ten lari for the advertisement that became ground for the SAO to get interested in 

his personality and Jojua was summoned as a witness to find out the origin of the donated ten 

lari. 66 

48. Interrogation of people, who had applied to the foundation Komagi for help at different 

times, has been underway since June. New group of citizens linked with Komagi was 

summoned for the interrogation; their accounts are completely sequestered. 



52

Based on the applications, the charity foundation of Komagi mediated citizens with Georgian 

emigrants who could financially assist people. 

Citizens, who had lost jobs on political or other grounds, or live below poverty level, applied 

to the foundation Komagi which got in touch with rich Georgian emigrants living abroad. 

The emigrants transferred certain amounts of money to the accounts of citizens. It is 

noteworthy that those people, who had lost jobs, received the sum equal to their monthly 

salaries. Funds allocated in June were immediately sequestered and account owners were 

summoned to various departments of the MIA for interrogation. They were interrogated as 

witnesses under Article 194 of Criminal Code of Georgia that envisages punishment for 

money laundering. 

Lawyer of the foundation Komagi Shalva Shavgulidze said some of the interrogated citizens 

did not have sums transferred on their accounts but their accounts were sequestered. Among 

them was a retired person whose pension account was sequestered. 

Citizens, who were not allowed to enjoy this assistance, asked their relatives to receive the 

transferred funds to their accounts. Although it was expected that bank accounts of the 

relatives would also be sequestered, the damaged citizens ran risk. 

Impoverished Aleksandre Mshvidobadze was called to interrogation on September 7. Lawyer 

of the Human Rights Center Nestan Londaridze defends his rights. Aleksandre 

Mshvidobadze is retired person; he has old parents and a sister who is the only family 

member who has income. Several months ago, his sister‟s account was sequestered because of 

her connection with the Komagi. This time, the brother applied to the charity foundation for 

help. The sum transferred on September 7 is still sequestered for the same charge – attempt 

of money laundering. 

Lawyer Nestan Londaridze said there are no signs of attempted money laundering in this 

case. According to her clarification, money laundering means to retransfer the received 

money for gaining percents. Consequently, this accusation is completely groundless because 

53

the account holders needed the money for the improvement of their social conditions. 

Simultaneously, they have not transferred the money to another account because it was 

sequestered. “The biggest violation in this case is that citizens are extremely poor and certain 

people assist them. However, government blocks this allowance to reach the people,” Nestan 

Londaridze said. 

The lawyer added that another violation is that citizens had not received any notifications 

about interrogation beforehand. 

Currently, accounts of all citizens linked with foundation Komagi are sequestered. 67 

49. Members of the Coalition Freedom of Choice got hold of a memory stick of Lanchkhuti 

district police officer Shmagi Uratadze, which contained various information and exposed 

blatant and illegal interference of the police in the pre-election process. 

These materials prove that police watches and collects information about political opinions 

of local inhabitants, personal data [personal ID numbers, phone numbers] of local leaders of 

opposition parties, public servants and their family members without relevant court 

sanctions. 

The most astonishing fact is that police officer had collected information about those people, 

who have satellite dish antennas at homes, as well as data about local opposition leaders who 

“supervises introduction of dish antennas in the district,” and data about “people working in 

the company” of Bidzina Ivanishvili, leader of the opposition political coalition Georgian 

Dream. We have grounded doubt that police officer Uratadze was performing this “hard job” 

based on the instruction of his leadership. If this fact is proved, it will demonstrate that law 

enforcement agency is performing anti-constitutional activities and implements function of a 

political police that serves interests of the ruling party instead the law. 


54

We checked part of the information on the police officer Shmagi Uratadze„s memory stick 

and the collected information is valid. The Coalition has neither authority nor ability to 

carry out valid investigation on the police officer‟s activities. Consequently, the obtained 

material cannot be considered valid proof of illegal activities of the police. Despite that, due 

to the significance of the obtained information, as well as high interest of Georgian and 

International community in the pre-election process, we decided to make the information 

public in an original form (except personal information of citizens stored in the memory 

stick). 

We appeal to the Inter-institutional Commission of the Security Council of Georgia and 

recommend them: due to the significance of the information stored in the memory stick, it is 

urgently important to timely study it. Naturally, we believe it is useless to oblige Georgian 

law enforcement agencies to carry out relevant investigation because abovementioned 

information indicates to their illegal and anti-constitutional activities. We do not have 

guarantees that if we hand the memory stick to them they would not erase or change the 

information. So, we suggest you to set up public commission with the participation of 

nongovernmental organizations and experts which will investigate the fact and release 

relevant conclusion on the issue. We are ready to hand the memory stick to the commission 

together with all relevant information we have. 68 

50. Sanctions Imposed on Voters‟ League. On September 5, 2012 statement was published on 

the website of the State Audit Office of Georgia. According to the statement, SAO declared 

organization Movement Voters‟ League to be subject of the monitoring regulated by Article 

261 of the Organic Law of Georgia on Political Union of Citizens. Consequently, restrictions 

envisaged by the Organic Law were imposed on it. 

The decision of the SAO was motivated by publicly declared goals and purposes of the 

Voters‟ League, as well as their implemented activities… 


55

The SAO statement reads that main motive of declaring Voters‟ League to be subject of the 

monitoring regulated by Article 261 of the Organic Law of Georgia on Political Union of 

Citizens is goals and purposes of the organization: “to unify to liberate the country from 

governmental monopoly, injustice and hopelessness caused by falsification… to unify to stop 

government‟s supremacy over individuals, to protect personal dignity, freedom and future.” 

In addition to that, “Ongoing verification activities of the voters‟ lists, on which the 

organization spends its financial resources, are accompanied by clearly political statements 

that directly connect organization‟s purposes and goals with political and election purposes 

and activities. Public statements of politically active leaders of the Foundation demonstrate 

political goals of the organization as well; those people try to communicate their political and 

election goals with the society.” 

In accordance to Article 261 Part I of the Organic Law of Georgia on Political Union of 

Citizens “restrictions envisaged for political parties in this chapter shall work for the 

individuals who have declared election goals and use financial and other material resources 

to achieve those goals.” 

Methodology of financial monitoring published by the SAO clarifies that “declared election 

purpose… can be clarified as intention to influence political process, as aspiration to change 

or maintain political reality when desire of a concrete individual to participate and win the 

elections, and to come into government is evident. Thus, if a concrete individual has socalled 

declared election goal, his/her activities shall aim not only at influencing political 

processes but also has desire to participate and win elections. 

Relying on the abovementioned circumstances we believe that none of the motives 

mentioned in the statement of the SAO do not meet requirements of the Article 261 Part I of 

the Organic Law of Georgia. 

56

We call upon the State Audit Office to provide more valid legal verifications and concrete 

facts to verify their position. Otherwise, the institution shall stop activities against 

Movement Voters‟ League. 

This fact will be reflected in the report of the Human Rights Center, which acts as a local 

monitoring organization of election process and this information will be forwarded to 

international observers and foreign embassies accredited in Georgia. 69 

51. From September 21 to September 25 police officers arrested activists of the Coalition 

Georgian Dream. In most cases motive was minor hooliganism. 

Shmagi Beridzishvili – was arrested in Sagarejo on September 21. Georgian Dream‟s 

majoritarian candidate in Sagarejo district Tinatin Khidasheli said several young people 

attended her meeting with voters in Kochlaani village; one of them took of the National 

Movement‟s t-shirt and dressed in Georgian Dream‟s one. “Today police alleges Shmagi 

Beridzishvili compelled the young man to do so; though it did not happen,” Khidasheli said. 

Court imposed administrative imprisonment on Beridzishvili. 70 

52. Georgian Dream Member Arrested By Police after Gurjaani Incident 

Georgian Dream member George Natroshvili, a resident of Vachnadzeani village, was 

arrested by Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) officials in Gurjaani. Natroshvili was accused 

of assaulting Mako Chitinashvili, an employee at Gurjaani district administration. 71 

53. On September 1, law enforcement officers released member of the Georgian Dream‟s 

Kutaisi organization Gela Goshadze several hours after detention under bail of 3 000 lari. He 

was accused of abuse of power. 


70 http://medianews.ge/ge/politsiamtinakhidashelissaarchevnoshtabistsevrishmagiberidzishvilidaakava/17106 


57

The fact occurred several years ago when the Georgian Dream‟s member Goshadze was 

inspector-investigator of the Kutaisi division of the Imereti, Racha-Lechkhumi and Kvemo 

Svaneti regional department of the MIA. He has 20-year-old working experience. 72 

54. Georgian Dream‟s Three Activists Sentenced to 70-Day Imprisonment. On August 21, 

Khoni district police arrested two activists of the Coalition Georgian Dream‟s local office. 

Soso Sulava and Koba Kublashvili are accused of verbal assault of Roman Liparteliani. 

Roman Liparteliani works at the Khoni district public agency and he is in charge of amenities 

of district cemeteries. Representatives of the Georgian Dream‟s Khoni office state Liparteliani 

was suspected in the oppression on the supporters of the Georgian Dream. On that ground, 

Sulava and Kublashvili visited him at the office and requested him to stop intimidation of 

their supporters. 

This fact occurred on August 17, Friday. Roman Liparteliani, victim recognized by the trial, 

state that he had not lodged a suit to the court. Nevertheless, the Khoni district court 

sentenced the detainees to 70-day imprisonment under Article 166 of the Administrative 

Code of Georgia. 73 

55. On August 19, at 11:00 am Samtredia district police officers detained Sergo Kiguradze, 

22. He is member of the public movement November 7. Currently, he supports Coalition 

Georgian Dream and is actively involved in the pre-election campaign of the Georgian 

Dream‟s majoritarian candidate in Samtredia Kakhi Kaladze. 

Sergo Kiguradze was Georgia‟s champion in free style and Greek-Romanian wrestling in 

2003-2008. 

Kiguradze was detained in his uncle‟s house in Samtredia. During the detention, police 

officers used force and they even beat Kiguradze‟s family members. 74 




58

56. During the night of August 7, 2012 people in plain clothes detained Imeda Nikuradze, 

Elita Burji Ltd‟s lawyer, and took him to an undisclosed location. Later it was clarified that 

he had been detained and was held in the main Tbilisi Police Station. 

On August 8, Tbilisi City Court sentenced Imeda Nikuradze to 20-day administrative 

imprisonment for resisting court executors during the raid of Elita Burji‟s office on the night 

of August 6. 75 

57. Georgian Dream‟s supporter Kristopher Jangirashvili was arrested by police in village 

Arguni of Dusheti district after what he was placed in Mtskheta hospital. Right now he is in 

the intensive care unit. 

“ Dusheti police officers arrested Jangirashvili two days after his meeting with us. 

Jangirashvili was in preliminary detention setting in Dusheti. He was taken to a hospital by 

police. This fact is confirmed by the hospital personnel. Right now Kristophor Jangirashvili is 

in hospital. His ward is guarded by security officers. We were not allowed to see him. The 

doctor said he has high blood pressure, but people with blood pressure of 150-100 are not 

generally placed in intensive care unit. Supposedly, he was physically abused. We cannot 

confirm or rule out anything because we were not allowed to see him. As for the second 

detainee, Janguli Jangirashvili, he was arrested for minor hooliganism. He already talked 

with a lawyer. Jangul Jangirashvili said he was arrested for political motives and does not 

plead guilty,” Tevdore Kariauli head of Georgian Dream‟s Dusheti office told Information 

Centre of Mtskheta-Mtianeti. 

Georgian Dream‟s supporters Kristopher and Jangul Jangirashvilis were arrested by MIA 

Dusheti police officers in Arguni village on August 12. 76 



59

58. Zaza Khatiashvili chairmen of the Georgian Bar Association and lawyer Gela 

Nikolasivhvili member of the association stated at the press conference that Lawyer 

Irma Chkadua‟s son was arrested on political grounds because of her mother‟s 

activities. 

As Gela Nikolasivhili and Zaza Khatiashvili mentioned Irma Chkadua took part in a serious 

and well known cases and defended donators of the political coalition Georgian Dream and 

fund Cartu. It became reason of arresting her 21 year old son Anri Jokhadze. 

According to Gela Nikolaishvili Irma Chkadua‟s son was taken by police on August 26 from 

his house under the charge of the crime envisaged by Article 260 Part I of the Criminal Code 

that concerns drug-abuse. 77 

59. Members of Georgian Dream Arrested in Kvareli. On September 4, Levan Khutsishvili 

and Zaza Rostiashvili-the members of the coalition Georgian Dream were arrested in Kvareli 

late at night. The police charged them for minor hooliganism. 

As Levan Khutsishvili‟s sister Nino Khutsishvili- INFO 9 journalist, told Information Centre 

of Kakheti both members of the Georgian Dream were arrested groundlessly for the political 

reason. 78 

60. On September 8, Chkhorotsku Court sentenced Edem Kvaratskhelia- Georgian Dream‟s 

activist to 35 days administrative imprisonment. Edem Kvaratskhelia was charged under 

Article 166 (minor hooliganism) of the Administrative Code of Georgia. 79 

61. Levan Nuskhelidze – was arrested in Telavi district on September 21. “Activist of the 

National Movement sued Levan at police. They are palls. National Movement‟s activist 

insulted everybody who was going to vote for the Georgian Dream. Levan could not stand it 




60

and slapped him. The former went and sued him for physical assault. Police immediately 

arrested Levan. Trial was held so that nobody was informed about it. They could impose 400 

lari fine on him but instead he was sent to prison for 20 days,” Georgian Dream‟s zone 

coordinator Zurab Nuskhelidze told ICK. 80 

62. Givi Nanobashvili was arrested in Tsnori, Signagi district on September 22. “Givi 

Nanobashvili was walking in the street together with two young men when police car 

approached them and officers demanded them to get into the car. The young men ran away 

but police officers forcibly pushed Givi Nanobashvili into the car,” head of Georgian Dream‟s 

Signagi office Zviad Jankarashvili told ICK. Signagi court found Nanobashvili guilty in minor 

hooliganism and fined him with 100 lari. 81 

63. Ushangi Napireli – was arrested in Vachnadzeani village, Gurjaani district by patrol 

police officers on September 22. Patrol police officer Nikoloz Sazanishvili, author of the law 

violation protocol, alleged Ushangi Napireli was using foal language in the street and caused 

public disorder for what he had to arrest him. On September 22, Judge Nana Chalatashvili at 

Gurjaani district court found Ushangi Napireli guilty under administrative law and sent him 

to prison for 40 days. 82 

64. Shamil Rasulov – was arrested in Chantliskure village, Kvareli district on September 24. 

“Patrol police arrested my husband in front of our neighbor‟s house. They did not explain the 

reason. Initially they hid the information from us and then they said he was taken to Kvareli 

police. He was arrested because he supports Georgian Dream; he has not done anything 




61

wrong,” detainee‟s wife Khalisa Magamedov told ICK. Kvareli district court found Shamil 

Rasulov guilty under administrative law and sentenced him to 60 days imprisonment. 83 

65. Domenti Zuroshvili – was arrested in Nasamkhrali village in Telavi district on September 

24. He pasted election posters of the Georgian Dream‟s majoritarian candidate in the village 

and then he was in village center together with his friends. Suddenly, village attorney 

Gremelashvili and criminal police officer approached them, grabbed Zuroshvili and took him 

away. Zuroshvili was asking him reason of his detention but they did not clarify anything. 

The lawyer was looking for him everywhere all day long but could not find. Meanwhile, 

they held secret trial without lawyer,” representatives of the Georgian Dream‟s Telavi office 

told ICK. Telavi district court found 29-year-old Domenti Zuroshvili guilty under 

administrative law and sent him to prison for 60 days. 84 

66. Shota Khutsishvili – was arrested in Tsnori in Signagi district on September 24. Police 

blamed him in minor hooliganism. However, Signagi district office of the MIA did not clarify 

to ICK what minor hooliganism he had committed. Court sent Khutsishvili to prison for 40 

days under administrative law. 85 

67. MIA reports about arrest of several people in Kareli and Khasuri. According to the 

information published on the MIA website, Kareli Regional Police officers detained Zviad 

Imerlishvili and Ilia Kelekhsashvili for disobedience to the police under the article 173 

envisaged by the Administrative Violations Code of Georgia. 

Zviad Imerlishvili was driving a car without seat belts. He was stopped by police officers who 

informed him that he was fined for the administrative violation. After Imerlishvili and 

Kelekhsashvili were provided with the mentioned information they verbally assaulted police 




62

officers, disobeyed and offered resistance as a result of which they were detained. They were 

arrested under administrative law. 

MIA also arrested Iago Kitiashvili and Giorgi Nozadze. 

“Khashuri Regional Police Division officers detained Iago Kitiashvili and Giorgi Nozadze 

who were detained for disobedience to the police under the article 173 envisaged by the 

Administrative Violations Code of Georgia. The car Vaz-2106 owned by Iago Kitiashvili was 

stopped by police on 10th km sector of Gomi-Sachkhere highway for violating safety rules. 

The driver and passenger refused to submit documents to the police and verbally assaulted 

them as a result of which they were,” MIA reports. 

MIA also reports about detention of several other people in Shida Kartli. 86 

68. World Champion and Activist of the Georgian Dream Mamuka Jananashvili Arrested. 

Mamuka Jananashvili, an activist and head of mobile groups, was arrested in Khovle village 

in Kaspi. Interpresnews‟ correspondent reports that Jananashvili was arrested in his house. 

His father Pavle Jananashvili said that on September 23 at 06:00 am about 15 police officers 

burst into their house and started search procedures. 87 

69. Nikoloz Kikilashvili – was arrested in Tsnori on September 24. Representative of the 

news agency info9.com.ge controlled by UNM Natia Mirianashvili sued him at police. She 

said Nikoloz Kikilashvili had physically assaulted her during video-coverage and injured her 

hand. Court found Kikilashvili guilty in minor hooliganism and sent to prison for 40 days. 88 

70. Nika Gogilashvili – was arrested in Gurjaani district on September 25. “He was going to 

the Georgian Dream‟s assembly in Gurjaani; police stopped and arrested him. During 

detention he was injured in the shoulder. Police officers initially took him to Gurjaani 

medical center for treatment and then to police station,” Zura Chikvaidze from the Georgian 




63

Dream‟s Gurjaani office told ICK. Gurjaani district court found Nika Gogilashvili, 25, guilty 

under administrative law and sent to prison for 50 days. 89 

71. Valerian Tamazashvili – was arrested in Kalauri village, Gurjaani district on September 

25. “He was arrested in the village, half an hour before the [Georgian Dream‟s] assembly,” 

Zurab Chikvaidze of the Georgian Dream‟s Gurjaani office told ICK. Gurjaani district court 

found Valerian Tamazashvili, 27, guilty under administrative law and sent to prison for 40 

days. 90 

72. Natik Rasulov was arrested in Iormuganlo village, Sagarejo district on September 25. 

Rasulov is member of the precinct election commission from the Georgian Dream in the 

village. Police accused him of disobedience. Sagarejo office of the MIA did not clarify what 

exactly he had committed. Court found Rasulov guilty under administrative law and sent to 

prison for 40 days. Police arrested Rasulov in August too; then he served 15 days in prison. 

Before taking to the detention setting, police officers ruthlessly beat him in Melaani forest. 91 

73. Zakaria Gagniashvili – was arrested in Tskarostavi in Sagarejo district on September 25. 

Police accused him of minor hooliganism. “On September 24, Zakaria spent whole day with 

me in Tbilisi; we were at the assembly in front of the CEC. On September 25, he was arrested 

at the petrol station at 10:00 am. They blamed him in cursing them on the previous night and 

I wonder where this incident happened? All TV-Channels have recorded that he was in front 

of CEC office in Tbilisi together with me,” Tinatin Khidasheli, majoritarian candidate of the 

Georgian Dream told ICK. Zakaria Gagniashvili will spend 40 days in prison. 92 





64

74. Nugzar Kapanadze – was arrested by Lagodekhi district police officers on September 25. 

Head of Georgian Dream‟s Lagodekhi office Gaga Gambashidze told ICK that law 

enforcement officers had arrested Nugzar Kapanadze because Apeni village residents met 

prime-minister Vano Merabishvili with shouting. Kapanadze is coordinator of this zone; next 

day he was arrested for disobedience,” Gambashidze said. Gurjaani district court imposed 60- 

day administrative imprisonment on Nugzar Kapanadze. He is serving his term in Kvareli 

detention setting. 93 

75. Ilia Suliashvili – was arrested in Chalaubani village on September 26 for pasting Georgian 

Dream‟s posters in the village. Suliashvili told ICK that he was released several minutes after 

detention. Police first arrested him on July 1 when he participated in the pre-election 

program “Door to Door.” He was accused of minor hooliganism and court put him in prison 

for 35 days in July. Ilia Suliashvili had injuries on the body. Giorgi and Lali Pridonashvilis 

from Chalaubani village had sued him; they are relatives of the former regional governor and 

current National Movement‟s majoritiarian candidate in Gurjaani Giorgi Gviniashvili. Ilia 

Suliashvili left prison on August 5. During his imprisonment his father died because of 

nervous palsy; Ilia Suliashvili was taken to the funeral handcuffed for several minutes. 94 

76. On September 23 Georgian Dream activists Gizo Tsatsua and Goderdzi Shonia were 

arrested by police for violating the administrative code. Majoritarian candidate in Poti from 

Georgian Dream Eka Beselia held a briefing were she talked about planned provocations 

from the government. 

77. Zugdidi City Court imposed 40-day administrative imprisonment on Kakha Zhorzholiani 

– Georgian Dream‟s representative in Mestia District Election Commission. 



65

His wife, human rights defender Nina Khatiskatsi told Interpresnews that court hearing 

lasted 2 hours and Judge David Kekenadze finished it without questioning witnesses and 

discussing the solicitations of the defense side. 

Khatiskatsi says her husband was accused of verbal assault of the CEC representative but 

Zhorzholiani denies the allegation. “Therefore we believe that the judgment of the Zugidi 

City Court is politically grounded. We will appeal it at the Appeal Court tomorrow,” 

Khatiskatsi said. 

Law enforcement officers arrested Kakha Zhorzholiani on September 23. As for motive of his 

detention, as Khatiskatsi said, Zhorzholiani was arrested based on the complaint of 

Sopromadze, CEC representative in Mestia DEC; several days ago Zhorzholiani and 

Sopromadze had an argument. 

“Kakha represents Georgian Dream in Mestia DEC. Several days ago he quarreled with 

Sopromadze, a CEC representative; they argued about opening 200-member special polling 

station in Mestia when there had never been military bases there. It was attempt to add 200 

more votes in Mestia via military precinct. By the way, based on the fair decision of the CEC, 

this polling station was cancelled. Kakha and Sopromadze had argument on this issue though 

they did not assault each other. Sopromadze wrote complaint on this fact and blamed Kakha 

in hindering the ongoing session,” Nina Khatiskatsi said. 95 

Transparency International Georgia is responding to the administrative detention of several 

people on alleged political grounds that took place during the last few days. It is worrying 

that the arrests do not seem to have been based on solid or reliable evidence. These 

questionable arrests give us reason to suspect that certain politically active people are being 

intentionally targeted and removed from the ongoing electoral process. 


66

Instances of questionable arrests include: 

On September 21, four individuals - David Patsatsia, Zurab Meskhia, Shota Bazerashvili, and 

Constantine Labartkava - were arrested for committing an administrative offence. The four 

of them were indicted under Article 173 of the Code of Administrative Offences of Georgia. 

Patsatsia and Meskhia have already been sentenced to 40 days of administrative detention. 

On September 22, the Ministry of Internal Affairs detained civil activists Dachi Tsaguria and 

Bekar Aladoshvili. They were sentenced to 10 days of administrative detention. Against the 

background of recent developments in Georgia, and taking into account that Dachi Tsaguria 

was actively involved in organizing the youth protests, the arrest of the latter raises further 

suspicions. We believe that such actions, especially when they occur in the pre-election 

period, are clearly politically motivated. Furthermore, before being arrested, Dachi Tsaguria 

had scheduled a meeting with NGOs in the Transparency International Georgia office. 

Kakha Zhorzholiani, a Georgian Dream representative in Mestia precinct, was also detained 

today. He was arrested on the basis of a complaint by CEC representative Archil Sopromadze, 

who maintained that Zhorzholiani had a got into a fight and disrupted the functioning of the 

Commission on September 20. However, four members of the commission, as well as several 

other eyewitnesses, told us that no such instance of fighting or other hooligan activity had 

taken place. According to them, there was only a loud argument and a quarrel. Our 

information suggests that the basis for this particular administrative detention was petty 

hooliganism, which is punishable under Article 166 of the Code of Administrative Offences 

of Georgia, and which leads to the imposition of a penalty of GEL 100 or administrative 

custody for up to 90 days. However, regarding the activities of the election administration, 

the Election Code of Georgia provides for appropriate measures in this situation, including 

allowing the administration to expel from the meeting any person disrupting order 

(paragraphs 15 and 18 of Article 8 of the Election Code). Therefore, it was improper to apply 

67

the Code of Administrative Offences in a case which was regulated by a law of a higher 

hierarchical order, namely the Election Code. 96 

Statement of Human Rights Center about the Recent Detention of Human Rights Defenders 

and Activists: Human Rights Center condemns the detention of human rights defenders 

Dachi Tsaguria and Beka Aladoshvili, as well as members of the political coalition Georgian 

Dream over the past few days. 

We believe that the government‟s repression of human rights defenders and politically active 

citizens, particularly at a time of obvious political crisis in the country, exceeds all 

boundaries. 

Instead of seeking lawful solutions to the political deadlock in order that fair elections might 

take place on October 1, the government is further complicating an already tense political 

environment. 

We consider the recent incidents of detention and physical violence against peaceful citizens 

as a continuation of the government‟s policy which caused horrible and unbearable 

conditions in penitentiary institutions. Recent repeated incidents of violence convince us 

that the government of Georgia cannot realize the importance of the shocking video-footage 

and is not going to eradicate illegality in the country. 

In addition, Human Rights Center points out that whilst pre-election processes were carried 

out at the edge of illegality until now, the recent facts prove that there is a real threat that 

this process will now definitively become an illegal one, making the elections useless. 

Recent facts compel us to doubt the government‟s desire to hold elections on the fixed day in 

a peaceful and fair environment. 


68

Due to the aforementioned circumstances, we demand that the government immediately 

release detainees and conduct the election process within a legal framework. Otherwise, we, 

as a local observation organization, together with our partner organizations, will use all legal 

means of protest at our disposal; we will provide foreign observation organizations, various 

international organizations and embassies with detailed information and relevant complaints 

on the observed violations. 97 

Cases of the use of financial resources and government regulations 

1. Soldiers ordered to bring 5 people to the National Movement‟s assembly in Telavi On 

September 8, United National Movement held assemblies in 11 cities of Georgia. They held 

assembly in Telavi too. In connection with this fact, soldiers were released from the battalion 

of the Defense Ministry for one day. They were ordered to bring 5 people from their 

neighborhood to the UNM assembly. “They released me this morning for one day. The 

commander told us to gather five people each for the National Movement‟s assembly in 

Telavi this evening. I had to collect people in my district and others in their districts,” a 

soldier told ICK. Expert of election issues Nina Khatiskatsi said soldiers, as well as police 

officers and officers of the MIA in general, are forbidden to participate in the pre-election 

meetings. 98 

2. Police officers at the National Movement‟s assembly In accordance to the Article 45 of the 

Election Code of Georgia, officers of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Georgia, Ministry of 

Defense, Prosecutor‟s Office, Georgian Intelligence Service and Special State Protection 

Service are prohibited to agitate or participate in the pre-election campaign. Despite that, 

officers of the Kakheti main regional department of MIA and military police officers 

attended the assembly of the National Movement in Telavi on September 8. Information 



69

Centre of Kakheti detected officers of Gurjaani district police -Levan Maisuradze, Gocha 

Sibashvili –the deputy head of police, Shota Bejanishvili- deputy head of Kakheti main 

regional department of MIA, Mamuka Sologhashvili- military police officer at the assembly. 

They were dressed in civil clothes and were not implementing their official duties. Many 

policemen were near the theatre during the assembly where many people were gathered to 

meet President Mikheil Saakashvili. There were a lot of police officers dressed in uniforms 

during the assembly. Nina Khatiskatsi-expert of election issues said that Article 79 of the 

Election Code envisages punishment for breaching this law and similar action is punished 

with fine of 2 000 lari. CEC has not started study of this case. 99 

3. 367 public servants on holiday in Kakheti during pre-election period Employees of district 

administrations and municipal boards in Kakheti region went on holidays during the preelection 

period. Most of them are on paid holidays and they participate in the pre-election 

campaign of the National Movement. 38 employees of the Dedoplistskaro district 

administration were on holiday from August 1 to September 7 in 2012; 57 employees of the 

Gurjaani district administration and 23 employees of the Kvareli district administration went 

on holiday; in total 367 employees of the local administrations are on holidays in Kakheti. 

Holidays of most of them finish on October 2, next day of the Parliamentary Election. 

District governors, their deputies, heads of offices, specialists, lawyers, attorneys of territorial 

entities and specialists are also on holidays; they had signed labor contracts just two months 

ago. Five district governors and 5 chairmen of the municipal boards from 8 districts of 

Kakheti region are on holiday. Akhmeta district governor Koba Maisuradze has been on 

holiday for more than 1 month; chairman of the municipal board Aleksi Mailashvili took 1- 

month holiday on September 3. Two weeks ago, Lagodekhi district governor Dimitri Loladze 

also went on holiday till October 2. Former chairman of the Lagodekhi municipal board 

Giorgi Gozalishvili resigned on August 23; he is UNM‟s majoritiarian candidate in Lagodekhi. 


70

Sagarejo district former governor Gia Chalatashvili is also majoritarian candidate of the 

ruling party; Shalva Jabadari implements his functions now. Chairman of the Sagarejo 

municipal board Ilia Chiaureli has been on holiday since September 2 and he participates in 

Gia Chalatashvili‟s pre-election campaign. Dedoplistskaro district governor Nikoloz 

Shanshiashvili, his deputy Aleksandre Alugishvili and chairman of the municipal board 

Levan Bagashvili are also on holiday. Chairman of the Gurjaani municipal board Zakaria 

Iaganashvili, district governor Davit Meskhishvili and his deputy Davit Bezhashvili are also 

on holiday. Zakaria Iaganashvili is head of Giorgi Gviniashvili‟s election HQ who is UNM‟s 

majoritarian candidate in Gurjaani. Telavi district governor Nugzar Khutsaidze also intends 

to take a holiday. “I will take holiday from September 15 and will participate in the preeleciton 

campaign,” Telavi district governor told ICK. “I am not on holiday yet but will soon 

go,” Kvareli district governor Beso Zandarashvili said. Directors and personnel of the budget 

funded organizations are also on holidays. They also participate in the National Movement‟s 

pre-election campaign. In accordance to the Election Code, public servant shall not 

participate in the election agitation of any candidate except holiday, weekends or nonworking 

hours. 100 

4. Myakhmeta.ge for party purposes On September 6, Georgian Young Lawyers Association 

blamed Akhmeta district governor Koba Maisuradze and head of Akhmeta Information 

Center Omar Marukashvili in the violation of the requirements of the Election Code. 

GYLA demands to fine Marukashvili with 2 000 lari and responsibility of the Akhmeta 

district governor. GYLA evaluated that coverage of the activities of the United National 

Movement on the websites of the regional self-governmental agencies has turned into 

an alarming trend. To demonstrate the law-violation the GYLA listed several examples 

including the materials published on the website of the Akhmeta Information Center 

myakhmeta.ge. “Information published on the Akhmeta district website agitates 

against the Georgian Dream and demonstrates sympathy towards the ruling party. The 


71

titles of the press-releases published on the Akhmeta district website are the following: 

Provocation of the dreamers; Candidate of the UNM for the position of Akhmeta 

majoritarian MP continues meeting with population; The Georgian Dream‟s briefing in 

Akhmeta aimed at misleading the public; The Georgian Dream‟s soviet nostalgia; Head 

of the political union Georgian Dream‟s office in Akhmeta, Temur Goderdzishvili does 

not remember Russian aggression; Local population who had arrived at the meeting did 

not hide their interest in the Georgian Dream‟s money; Most of the population 

surveyed still expresses their confidence in Petre Tsiskarishvili; Petre Tsiskarishvili is 

again the candidate of the UNM for the position of Akhmeta majoritarian MP; Majority 

of Ozhio‟s population believes that Temur Goderdzishvili joining the Georgian Dream 

is related to his business interests; Who is the head of the Georgian Dream‟s office in 

Akhmeta?! What Teimuraz Goderdzishvili is going to say to the voters who elected 

them when he was a candidate of the UNM and declared their trust to him. Article 48 

of the Georgian Election Code prohibits use of means of communication and 

information service of local self-government agencies in favor of or against an election 

subject. Article 49 of the Election Code prohibits pre-election agitation while 

performing official functions. Therefore, we believe that the responsible officials of the 

municipalities below violate these requirements of the Election Code, which is 

punishable by fine in the amount of GEL 2000 as administrative liability. Further, it is 

expedient to impose disciplinary responsibility on persons involved for their failure to 

duly perform their official duties and for behaving in a way that discredits the agency. 

GYLA believes that for publication of materials with clear agitation content on the 

website of Akhmeta Municipality a number of times, Gamgebeli of the municipality 

must be held liable,” chairperson of the GYLA Tamar Chugoshvili said. Akhmeta 

Information Center was founded based on the Akhmeta municipal board in August of 

2009. Its legal form is non-profit, non-commercial legal entity. Akhmeta Information 

72

Center gets funds from the Akhmeta district budget. In 2012 it received 30 000 lari 

from the local budget. 101 

5. Implementation of the activities funded from the local budget by the workers dressed in 

National Movement‟s t-shirts On September 2, Employees of Ltd Gareganateba 

[outdoor illumination] work dressed in the National Movement‟s t-shirts in Telavi. The 

Ltd is financed with 100 000 lari from the local budget. As Irine Urushadze-the lawyer 

of Transparency International - Georgia told ICK it is abuse the administrative 

resources and bribery of voters. Kakha Azikuri-the director of Ltd told ICK that his 

employees support the National Movement and he cannot prohibit them to wear the 

party‟s election t-shirts. 102 

6. The number of employees has increased in Mtskheta district administration – Number of 

employees has increased in Mtskheta district administration before elections. District 

governor Teimuraz Abashidze has four deputies instead two and district territorial 

authorities have 22 more specialists. In 2010 -225 people worked at the Mtskheta district 

administration; in 2011 230; in January of 2012- 253 and in July of 2012- 264 people. 

Numbers of employees are also increased in territorial entities of villages in Mtshketa district. 

There are 24 territorial authorities in Mtshketa district. In 2011 42 specialists were working 

in territorial entities; in January of 2012 – 56 people and in July of 2012 – 63 people. 

Specialists were added to following territorial authorities: Agdomliantkari, Natakhtari, 

Tsikhisdziri, Ksani, Ksovrisi, Saguramo, Mukhrani, Tskhvarichamia, old Kanda, and 

Misaktsieli. Information centre of Mtshketa- Mtianeti didn‟t get answer about its question 

why number of deputy governors and specialists of territorial entities had increased. “I am on 

a holiday and don‟t want to talk about work right now,” Mtskheta district governor 

Teimuraz Abashidze told ICMM. Givi Maisuradze who is performing governor‟s duties didn‟t 


102 http://www.youtube.com/watchv=dTDTFrhEGAM&feature=player_embedded 

73

answer our questions either. Attorneys of territorial entities are also on holiday till October 

2. They participate in the pre-election campaign of the National-Movement. 103 

7.On September 24, 2012 CEC passed resolution on the regulation of photo and video footage 

in polling stations on the Election Day.These regulations restrict photo-video footage. We 

believe this resolution contradicts the Article 8 Part 25 of the Election Code of Georgia 

which does not contain any restrictions for photo-video recording in polling stations on the 

Election Day. 104 

IFJ Calls for Guarantees on Press Freedom ahead of Elections in Georgia 

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) today called on the authorities in Georgia to 

guarantee independence of media ahead of the general elections due to take place on 1 

October. 

"Past elections in Georgia have been marred by attempts to control media and obstruct 

independent reporting, "said IFJ President, Jim Boumelha. "There is now an opportunity for 

the government to demonstrate its commitment to open governance and democratic rule by 

allowing journalists to operate freely and safely during the pre-election period." 

According to the Independent Association of Georgian Journalists (IAGJ), an IFJ affiliate, 

there have been nearly fifty cases of harassment, threats or attacks against journalists since 

the middle of last year 2011. Many private media outlets were simply prevented from 

operating. The IFJ is concerned by reports of the government's measures to limit the freedom 

of journalists during the elections by imposing restricted areas for reporters. 

In recent months, the Government attempted also to obstruct activities of independent 

media outlets with the modification of the tender process for press distribution booths in the 

capital city and the dismantling of satellite antennas of private companies, reports say. 

The situation of press freedom further deteriorated with the violent police crackdown of the 

opposition protest rally in May 2011 as well as the arrest in the last July 2012 of photo 


104 http://cesko.ge/files/2012/DADGENILEBA/d_42.pdf 

74

eporters for alleged "espionage". Journalists were beaten and their professional equipment 

was intentionally destroyed. 

The IFJ says that these incidents undermine freedom of speech and freedom of expression. 

"Media clampdown is always misguided and counterproductive," added Boumelha. „ 

Democracy will not take hold in Georgia unless the authorities wise up to the reality that 

journalism is a public good and create an environment which is conducive to independent 

reporting." 

The IAGJ has also condemned media repression in Georgia, describing it as a violation of the 

Georgian public's right to information. 105 

8. 40 liters of wine from National Movement –On September 21, wine of state enterprise 

Gruzgvinprom [wine-producing company] was distributed in Chumlaki village in the 

families victimized by natural disaster. Attorney of territorial entity Abo Kasrelishvili said 

the families victimized by natural disaster received wine from the Ministry of Agriculture. 

Gurjaani based company Gruzvinprom is state enterprise and they have been purchasing 

grapes from local peasants for several years already. Village governor‟s son and National 

Movement‟s activists were distributing wine in the village. In parallel to it, activists of the 

ruling party carried out agitation in support of the UNM. Video-recording of this fact 

irritated specialist of the Chumlaki village territorial entity Ioram Ortoidze. First he hit the 

camera and then insulted journalists. 106 

9. Public servants at the assembly during working hours – on September 24, at 5:00 pm 

President of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili, prime-minister Vano Merabishvili, chairman of the 

parliament Davit Bakradze met supporters of the National Movement in Gurjaani. President 

nominated the majoritarian candidates of the National Movement in Kakheti region to the 

gathered people, mostly pupils of the local public schools. Attorney of Chalaubani village 



75

territorial entity Valeri Barnabishvili, specialist of the Kardenakhi village territorial entity 

Gogia Teteloshvili, and attorney of Velistsikhe village territorial entity Nukri Bakhlishvili, 

Dedoplistskaro district deputy governor Emzar Janashvili attended the assembly. According 

to official information, which ICK received from district administrations, none of the 

aforementioned people were on holidays at that moment. 107 

10. Batumi City Hall and Kobuleti Municipal Board assist socially vulnerable families with 

food. None of those institutions connect the campaign with the upcoming elections. 

However, they admit that they have not implemented similar project in previous years. 

3 kg. rice, 2 kg. buckwheat, 2 liters of oil, 10 kg of wheat flour, 5 kg macaroni, 5 kg, sugar, 1 

kg salt, 10 gr. black tea – this is the list of those 8 products which will be distributed among 8 

500 families in Batumi and 1 400 families in Kobuleti. Food parcels will be equal in Batumi 

and Kobuleti and total price of each is 40 lari. Ltd Maja, a winning company of the bid, will 

distribute the parcels and it will receive 340 000 lari from Batumi City Hall and 55 999 lari 

from Kobuleti municipal board for the purpose. 

The food parcels will be assigned to those families in Batumi and Kobuleti who are registered 

in the united data base of socially vulnerable families and whose rating points are from 0 to 

100 000. 108 

11. Supporters of the Coalition “Georgian Dream” were fired from their jobs in Kazbegi. 

Mirian Tsiklauri, majoritarian candidate for the Georgian Dream, told ICMM that police has 

been targeting their activists for the last ten days, fining them for traffic violations. 

“Jaba Gomiashvili was fired from his job. On July 1, 2012 he met Bidzina Ivanishvili at the 

entrance to Stepantsminda on horseback. He took Georgian Dream‟s flag up on the Mountain 



76

Mkinvartsveri. Several days later he was fired from his job; Jaba was a rescue team member 

in Gudauri,” Nona Sujashvili, head of Georgian Dream‟s Kazbegi office told ICMM. 

She also said that another Georgian Dream supporter, Giorgi Tsamalaidze was also fired from 

his job at a hotel in Gudauri. 

“A nurse at the Kazbegi District Hospital, Diana Avsanjashvili, was also compelled to quit her 

job because of her political affiliation. Tsitsia Katsashvili, the head of the Culture Service of 

Kazbegi District Administration, was also fired after her husband publicly declared his 

discontent with the United National Movement (UNM). Several employees of the Liberty 

Bank‟s Kazbegi office, including the head of the office, Nino Kushashvili, were compelled to 

hand in resignation letters because of their support for the Georgian Dream. According to 

our information, Mtskheta-Mtianeti regional governor Tsezar Chocheli demanded that the 

Liberty Bank administration fire them. Patrol police also targets our activists and supporters. 

They have imposed hefty fines on the Georgian Dream‟s supporters,” Nona Sujashvili said. 

Kazbegi district governor Davit Gudushauri said that Tsitsia Katsashvili quit her job by her 

own volition. “A week ago, she filed her resignation letter because the family runs a business 

and needed help with it. Some people do not fulfill their duties properly and do not treat old 

people properly when they applied to the Culture Service for help. We should not connect 

everybody‟s resignation with the opposition parties,” the Kazbegi district governor said. 

Dodo Bochorishvili, the head of the Public Relations Department at Liberty Bank 

categorically denied any information about political motives being behind the dismissal of 

people from their Kazbegi office: “We do not fire people on political grounds. It is incorrect 

information,” Bochorishvili said. 109 

12. According to Dato Lortkipanidze,the majoritarian candidate of the coalition Georgian 

Dream in Vani, Naira Khhavtasi and her husband Rostom Kikabidze,residents of Vani, were 


77

fired because they were supporters of Georgian Dream. The above-mentioned persons were 

onat the Georgian Dream protest rally a few days ago. 

Naira Khavtasi is an employee of Vani first aid.”The director Maka Zarnadze came to the 

office in the morning, told me that I was fired and warned me not to complain”, - Naira 

Khavtasi said. 

Vani first aid service received a fine of several thousand lari as a result of an inspection some 

months ago. Maka Zarnadze threatened Naira Khavtasi, saying that she will be made to pay 

this fine if she gives away the real reason for her dismissal. 

Dato Lortkipanidze expressed solidarity towards these people and demanded that the 

relevant agencies return them to their positions. 110 

13. Members of the coalition Georgian Dream state that sons of their coordinators were 

recruited to military service. Representatives of the Coalition‟s local office provided Human 

Rights Centre with the list of some people who were recruited only because they supported 

the opposition parties. 

While talking to Humanrights.ge the opposition stated that two of these people had health 

problems and they were illegally recruited to military service. 111 

14. National Movement activists distributed bread flour, rice, oil and washing powder in 

Telavi. Irine Urushadze lawyer from Transparency International Georgia states that‟s there is 

use of administrative resources and bribery of voters. 

10 kg flour, 5 kg macaroni, 1 bottle oil and 2 washing powders are given to a family. Vazha 

Zuroshvili deputy director of Telavi municipality governor said to Information Centre of 

Khaketi that nearly 8 000 thousand people will get aid as a result of natural disaster. 



78

According to ICK products will be given also to those families who weren‟t affected by 

disaster or got minor damage. 

National Movement activist that was distributing products didn‟t answer on the question of 

ICK, why he was distributing products dressed in National Movement t-shirt. Gigi Likokeli 

governor of Telavi territorial authority also avoided to answer this question. 

Human Rights Center considers that pre-election period is official after publication relevant 

legal act by president about 2012 parliamentary elections. Therefore we believe that in this 

case it maybe be violation of article 164 of criminal code that is about bribery of voters also 

violation of maliciously using administrative resources and using budget for pre-election 

period. Human Rights Center requests from financial monitoring service of state audit and 

inter-agency commission to start investigation of those facts and react adequately. 112 

15. Head of Akhmeta Resource Center, Bela Marukashvili, forces public teachers to agitate in 

favor of Akhmeta‟s majoritarian candidate Petre Tsiskarishvili, from National Movement; if 

they do not obey, she threatens to fire them. 

“School directors were called and ordered to force all teachers in our villages to work for 

Petre Tsiskarishvili. We should go to districts and ask people what problems they have, who 

they support, and what they want from Petre Tsiskarishvili and the government. All teachers 

should give written reports to their school directors until August 15 and the directors will 

give reports to Bela Marukashvili. Of course, we will have to do this work without payment. 

We were told that those who refuse will not have their contracts continued from 

September.” Duisi and Kvemi Alvani public school teachers told Information Centre of 

Khaketi. 

Head of Akhmeta education resource centre Bela Marukashvili made no comments on the 

allegation. 


79

Bela Marukashvili is member of Akhmeta municipal board from the National Movement. 

Her father, Omar Marukashvili, is head of Akhmeta Information Centre. The latter has office 

in the building of municipal board and is funded by local budget. Bela Marukashvili‟s 

brother, Vazha Marukashvili, is manager of Khaketi regional office of Energy Distribution 

Service Centre. 

Bela Marukashvili personally intimidated a respondent of the ICK and Georgian Dream‟s 

supporter Gulchina Tsikoria. She demanded the owner of the house where the lonely and 

socially vulnerable woman sheltered to expel her from the house. 113 

CEC refused the American monitoring group to observe the elections in Georgia. The 

representatives of American organization Committee for Open Democracy stated about this 

on the press conference held in the Interpressnews office. 114 

16. Georgian Dream‟s coordinator in Mleta zone, Dusheti region Zura Burduli was recruited 

to the compulsory military service. Zurab Burduli, 25, reported to ICMM that he has health 

problems and was declined by military office three times on that ground. “Now I am in 

Tbilisi based recruiters‟ distribution office. Head of Dusheti district military service Beso 

Undilashvili is ordering doctors to write positive answers to all questions because I must go 

to the army by all means,” Zurab Burduli said. 115 

Use of media resources by Government 

Humanrights Center conducted a pre-election environment in the media - and its 

corresponding monitoring report, which can be found on our web - site. 116 

113 http://ick.ge/ka/articles/10490‐2012‐04‐10‐16‐07‐37.html 




80

Conclusion 

As a result of monitoring, the following problems were singled out: over the last two 

months, the long-term observers of Human Rights Center observed 87 cases of abuse of law 

enforcement and misuse of the supervisory and regulatory resources of the government. 10 

of these concerned illegal interference in the activities of journalists; 50 cases were linked 

with politically motivated oppression and revenge by governmental institutions, and there 

were 27 cases of assumed politically motivated detentions. Our monitors observed that 

human and financial resources of the government administration were misused in 17 cases. 

More problems included: abuse of administrative resources by the ruling party; politically 

motivated persecution of people, which acquired alarming proportions (more than 60 

activists of Georgian Dream were detained); doubts about voters‟ lists. The media is still 

experiencing oppression and satellite dish antennas are still confiscated. Disproportionate 

fines sanctions and fines hinder the activities of the political opposition coalition. 

Recently, the government of Georgia and the ruling party – United National Movement were 

strongly criticized by two international organizations at once. Rapporteurs of the PACE and 

the Pre-Election Mission of the Parliamentary Assembly of OSCE expressed their concerns 

about the current situation and called on the government to create equal conditions for every 

political party during the pre-election period. 

Background 

The evaluations of international observers were preceded by statements from international 

and local NGO‟s in which they repeatedly condemned the actions of the government 

against the opposition. In particular, the NGO sector highlighted problems during the 

pre-election period in the run-up to the parliamentary elections on October 1. As early 

as the end of last year, Coalition Freedom Choice drew attention to an unhealthy 

situation that could influence the election process. In December 2011 the coalition published 

81

an analysis of media problems and cases of human rights violations related with political processes 

during the pre-election period. 117 

In July, when the pre-election environment became very tense, the international 

organization Amnesty International directly demanded that Georgian Authorities stop violence 

against the opposition ahead of elections. 118 

“Amnesty International is concerned by the fact that the Georgian government is unable to 

protect opposition supporters and journalists from political violence when Georgian 

citizens are preparing for parliamentary elections”- stated Amnesty International, 

whilst listing many incidents against Georgian Dream in the regions. Local media also 

mentioned incidents of possible bribery of voters , dismissal on political grounds, 

political pressurizing, interference in political activity as well as misuse of 

administrative resources by National Movement. (See. Mtskheta-Mtianeti – Pre-Election 

Digest # 1 and Kakheti- Pre-Election Digest # 1). 119 

Civil society was concerned by the fact that during the pre-election period, Global TV satellites 

were seized. 120 This was followed by a protest rally against the seizure of Maestro TV satellite 

dishes. 121 

The NGO sector‟s main criticism of the government concerned the unfair measures carried 

out against Georgian Dream leader Bidzina Ivansihvili, especially the disproportionate 

financial penalties he received. According to the decision of the Appeal Court passed on June 

15, 122 Georgian Dream Leader Bidzina Ivansihvili was ordered to pay 74.32 million lari, 

which was the largest fine he had received to date. At the end of July Ivanishvili paid 

this fine with the condition that the money would be used for the people who had 

been victims of a natural disaster in Kakheti. 






122 http://www.civil.ge/geo/article.php?id=25598 

82

At the same time, the State Audit Office periodically seized the accounts of Georgian Dream 

coalition activists. One step behind this organization, the National Bureau of 

Enforcement also worked quickly to sell the seized property by auction. The property 

of people who had different political views was seized in a tragic manner. 

Mission expresses concern 

OSCE Parliamentary Assembly‟s pre-election observation mission expressed concerns over 

“questionable decisions” made by the State Audit Office, including imposing 

“disproportionate” and “harsh” penalties “apparently being applied in a selective manner.” 

The four-member mission, made up of OSCE Parliamentary Assembly‟s leadership, also 

expressed concerns over the judiciary system and expressed hope that in the final weeks of 

the campaign ahead of the October 1 parliamentary elections, the Georgian authorities 

would create “a level playing field for all parties”. 

News agency Interpresnews reported that the OSCE PA Mission paid a visit to Tbilisi to 

monitor the pre-election environment in the country on August 20. During their three-day 

visit, the Delegation met with representatives of the government, opposition parties, 

international and nongovernmental organizations, the Inter-agency Task Force and members 

of the Parliament of Georgia. 

According to Civil Georgia, the three-day visit of the OSCE Mission to Georgia aimed at 

assessing the country‟s pre-election climate. The mission was led by former foreign minister 

of Croatia Tonino Picula and also included OSCE Parliamentary Assembly‟s President 

Riccardo Migliori, OSCE PA Secretary General Spencer Oliver and director of OSCE PA 

presidential administration Roberto Montella. 

During the visit the mission met with representatives of the ruling party, the opposition, 

election administration, as well as media and civil society representatives and members of 

the international community in Tbilisi. 

83

“We welcome positive amendments to the election system of Georgia and a pre-election 

effort that aims to ensure the accuracy of the voters‟ list, provide transparency in campaign 

finance, and expand media accessibility throughout the country, but we do not want to 

remain blind to problems in the country. We discussed those problems with almost every 

party. We observed some problems – there may be partiality in the activities of law 

enforcement institutions, mainly the State Audit Office. We discussed the activities of these 

institutions with experts and interested parties and warned them that they are acting with 

“unclear” instructions. Another issue of concern is the judiciary. We wish to see courts 

operating in a transparent and unbiased manner and intervening with neutrality on various 

issues. There is enough time to eradicate these problems. We are observing huge polarization 

in society. We might be mistaken, but political rivals, governmental officials and opposition 

parties apparently do not share equal values. We want to witness an election which will be a 

celebration of democracy in Georgia,” Tonino Picula said. 

He added that the members of the mission will continue monitoring the issues which are a 

cause of particular concern to the mission and will keep and eye on the ongoing process. 

“We have seen a growing political polarization in the country. We are particularly 

concerned by the practices of certain law enforcement institutions in Georgia. In our view, 

the State Audit Office is using broad discretionary authority to investigate the legality of 

individual or party spending, making questionable decisions and imposing harsh penalties 

without clear or transparent guidelines. The fines levied are disproportionate and are 

apparently being applied in a selective manner mainly targeting one political subject,” the 

head of OSCE PA Pre-Election Mission stated and added: “A fair and independent judiciary 

system is also fundamental to ensure the conduct of free and fair elections. After this visit, 

we have concerns about the possibility of receiving a fair legal judgement from the court 

system.” 

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OSCE PA President Riccardo Migliori said: “In the final weeks of this campaign I hope the 

Georgian authorities will commit to a credible election and help create a level playing field 

for all parties.” In addition, Migliori said he detected signs of Leninism in the ongoing election 

campaign in Georgia. 123 

“We are on an important mission in this country during the pre-election monitoring. These 

elections are of great importance for your future. The elections should be another important 

moment in Europe. This is the goal of the governmental and opposition parties. There is a 

little part of Leninism in this electoral campaign. They don‟t present programs but try to 

destroy rivals. There are no enemies in this society. Political parties shall necessarily present 

their programs and ideas to the population. Georgia is an important nation, an important 

place in the Caucasus; it is a beacon of democracy and we are here to make this beacon more 

important,” Ricardo Migliori said after the August 22 meeting with Davit Bakradze, chair of 

the Parliament of Georgia. 

Concern of Co- Rapporteurs from OSCE PA Mission 

Before the members of the OSCE PA Pre-Election Mission expressed their concern, the corapporteurs 

made a statement where the excessive and disproportionate fines imposed on 

opposition parties by State Audit Office were strictly criticized. 

According to the official website of the CoE, PACE rapporteurs for Georgia express concern 

about financial actions against the Georgian Dream coalition. 124 Co-rapporteurs from 

Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) on honouring Georgia‟s 

obligations expressed concern over seizure of bank accounts of political parties within the 

Georgian Dream opposition coalition and said that “disproportionate fines” levied by the 

State Audit Office “effectively undermine normal political activity by an opposition party.” 

123 http://www.palitratv.ge/akhali‐ambebi/politika/20598‐ra‐problemebs‐khedavs‐euthos‐saparlamento‐asambleis 

‐vice‐prezidenti‐saqarthveloshi.html 

124 http://assembly.coe.int/ASP/NewsManager/EMB_NewsManagerView.asp?ID=7891&L=2 

85

The two co-rapporteurs, Michael Aastrup Jensen of Denmark and Boriss Cilevičs of Latvia, 

said in a statement on August 21, that seizure of the Georgian Dream‟s bank accounts was 

undermining the opposition coalition‟s participation in the election campaign for the 

October 1 parliamentary polls. “The excessive and disproportionate fines levied by the State 

Audit Service effectively undermine normal political activity by an opposition party,” the 

statement reads. 

“This is of concern, especially in the context of recurrent allegations 125 of bias of the State 

Audit Service and reports by credible organisations, such as the Georgian Young Lawyers 

Association, that question 126 the fairness of the court decisions in this respect,” the corapporteurs 

said. 

“The rationale for campaign funding legislation is to ensure a level playing field between all 

electoral contestants, and not to drive one party or the other out of the electoral race.” 

“The upcoming elections, and their democratic conduct, are crucial for Georgia‟s democratic 

development. We therefore call upon the Georgian authorities to demonstrate maximum 

restraint and to ensure that all parties, including the Georgian Dream Coalition, can 

participate fully in the electoral campaign,” the statement reads. 

The two co-rapporteurs plan to visit Georgia on September 11-12 as part of the pre-electoral 

mission of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. 

National Bureau of Enforcement Woke Up 

After the co-rapporteurs of the PACE expressed their concerns, the National Bureau of 

Enforcement (NBE) has “postponed” collection of GEL 2.85 million fine, 127 which was imposed 

on six political parties united in Bidzina Ivanishvili-led Georgian Dream opposition coalition, 

the Georgian Justice Ministry said late on August 22. 




86

“Up to date, only a small portion of the fine, GEL 122,000, has been collected by the NBE, 

without freezing any account,” Justice Ministry‟s statement reads. “Nevertheless, following 

the recommendation of the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Free and Fair Elections and 

consultations with the State Audit Office of Georgia, who is the creditor in the case, the NBE 

has decided to postpone the enforcement of the Tbilisi Court Decision,” the statement of the 

Ministry of Justice reads. 

Spokesperson of the National Movement MP Chiora Taktakishvili connected the critical 

evaluation of the OSCE PA Mission about pre-election situation in the country with “their 

inaccurate information provided by the lobbyists of concrete political parties.” The ruling 

party had the same reaction about the statement of the PACE rapporteurs. In his interview 

with Radio Liberty, member of the Georgian Delegation in the PACE Giorgi Kandelaki stated 

that co-rapporteurs were mislead like several other people. 128 

Similar comments made by the representatives of the parliamentary majority demonstrate 

the readiness of the government to consider the concern of international observers and civil 

society, to change repressive politics and create normal pre-election environment in the 

country. 129 

We believe that the government‟s repression of human rights defenders and politically active 

citizens, which we have discussed above, particularly when political crisis is clearly observed 

in the country and it is in a pre-election period, exceeded all limits. 

Instead of offering lawfully acceptable solutions to the political deadlock, in order to ensure 

that fair elections are held on October 1, the government is escalating an already tense 

political environment. 

We view recent incidents of detention and physical violence against peaceful citizens as a 

continuation of the government‟s policy which caused difficult and unbearable conditions in 

penitentiary establishments. Recent repeated cases of violence again convince us that the 

128 http://www.radiotavisupleba.ge/content/eu‐georgia/24683460.html 

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http://humanrightshouse.org/Articles/18523.html 

87

government of Georgia does not realize the importance of the horrifying video-footage and 

will not reform the existing illegality in the country. 

In addition, Human Rights Center believes that whilst the pre-election process has been 

conducted on the borderline of illegality, after these aforementioned cases there is a real 

threat that this trend will acquire irreversible form and that the elections will lose their 

meaning entirely. Recent events encourage us to doubt the government‟s desire to hold 

elections in a peaceful and just environment. 

88

Human Rights Center 

Al. Kazbegi Ave.3a; 2 nd entrance, 4 th floor, App 22, Tbilisi, Georgia 

Tel: (+995 32) 237 69 50 

Fax: (+995 32) 238 46 50 

Email: hridc@hridc.org 

Website: www.hridc.org www.humanrights.ge 

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Intermediate Report Research of Pre-election Period - The Human ...

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