Interview with Archil Kbilashvili, Chief Prosecutor of the country

We asked Archil Kbilashvili the questions connected with solving of divulged cases and disappointment caused by impunity of former high ranks. Which cases are expected to come to light and what hidden processes are developing in the lobby of Prosecutor’s Office?

Q. – The Parliament recognized about 200 people to be political prisoners. Why aren’t those prosecutors and judges due to whom these people became political prisoners, punished?
A. – We’ve set up a special group uniting 11 prosecutors who have only one function – to study illegal deeds of other prosecutors. Complaints in which the citizens expose prosecutors’ illegal actions are being intensively studied.
Q. – According to backstage information two important files containing your predecessor Zurab Adeishvili’s notes disappeared from your study. As they say, your deputy was sacrificed to this.
A. – I can’t confirm this information.
Q. – But haven’t you changed your deputy?
A. – Yes, I have.
Q. – According to spread information Adeishvili was given political asylum in Hungary. They also say that Adeishvili is working at Hungarian Ministry of Justice.
A. – It’s unspecified information and I think it’s inexpedient to speak about it.
Q. – According to Georgian experts the shots reflecting Buta Robakidze’s much-spoken-about detention and killing are edited. Where is the tape and has anybody (old employees) seen it in the Prosecutor’s Office?
A. – The thing is that Prosecutor’s Office and investigator didn’t have to receive the ten-minute-and-one-second tape in the way as it was presented. Buta Robakidze was assassinated in 2004 but we got the tape in this form 8 years later. A question arises, where was it up till this moment and why wasn’t it included in the case? We consider that guilt of Prosecutor’s Office and those representatives of Interior Ministry who were obliged to include the tape in the case is being shaped out. I’m deeply convinced that they had full version of it; it may exist somewhere even today but it isn’t presented.
Q. – Supporters of detained ex-Minister Bacho Akhalaia say that he is detained on ridiculous charges – for peeling an apple and threatening the soldiers to make them exercise in the cold. Wasn’t it possible to collect charges with better argument? On live air you declared that Akhalaia’s privileged high-ranks made the detained to sign confessions threatening to rape their wives. You also said that facts of trading with inmates’ organs in the penitentiary system are coming to light.
A. – Charges brought against Akhalaia were pertaining to inadequate treatment of inmates and exceeding of his authority. Generally, with regard to prison cases more than 2000 prisoners were interrogated. They are naming dozens of people who participated in inmates’ torture.
We are investigating 8-year-period of financial-economic activity of Defense Ministry and we have many questions regarding purchase of weapons, money transfers and shortages.
Q. – In one of his interviews Koba Otanadze, accused for coup, demanded to be interrogated by Chief Prosecutor. He recalled how Givi Targamadze, one of ‘National Movement’ leaders shot his hands. Has Givi Targamadze indeed done it?
A. - If there was such a declaration and it is left without reaction it means that the Office is somewhat overladen and for this reason we can’t give timely response.
Q. – What can you say about deceased ex-Premier Zurab Zhvania’s case?
A. – There is interesting news. Investigation started from a rather difficult phase but during this time a chink has been found and it is becoming more and more solid. Presumably, it will have an interesting development.
Q. – In the Prosecutor’s Office there are more than 18 thousand applications regarding infringement of property rights. For how long will the revision of these cases last?
A. – We’ve already started studying of these applications. Our function is to only establish who committed the crime and whose responsibility is outlined. Second part is restitution that requires amendment of law and regulation because at present the State is in no condition to give back all that property. We have already voiced several topics; as for, say, encroachment of ‘Imedi’, Rabat, etc. still there are lots of cases to be reviewed.
Q. – Won’t your cadre policy put Prosecutor’s Office in a bad situation and frustrate people’s hopes?
A. – Criticism with regard to cadres seems to me rater excessive but there must be such criticism too. Everything has its positive side. Take into consideration that from November 1 to March 7 we sued 260 functionaries. Out of them there are ministers and one mayor.