“Their import amounted to a state level crime”

“I call on the General Prosecutor and Internal Affairs Minister to ensure fair and fast investigation of the case because five more persons remain in custody,” – declared the former Agricultural Minister Davit Kirvalidze in response to the claims by Mamuka Ivaniadze, Deputy Director of Mekanizatori LTD, asserting that the 26-page testimony he gave against Davit Kirvalidze, was forced out of him by the prosecutor Giorgi Davitashvili by means of harassment and dictate. Following the testimony, on 2 July, Ivaniadze was detained and then released on GEL 10 000 bail. We got in touch with Mamuka Ivaniadze.
A: Probably, the decision to detain me was based on the fact of my 40-year friendship with the minister since our school years. I was included in the Specification Commission as an agricultural specialist. The commission was supposed to bring out recommendations on the purchase of tractors of particular type. They came after me on 1 May. It was night. They were threatening to let me rot in the prison and to set me up for having an illegal weapon. They even mentioned my family members. Particularly rude allusions were made regarding my student daughter. They were demanding from me to give a testimony against the minister. Today five scientists are in prison for the recommendations. The tractors were purchased by Mr. Karseladze, Deputy Head of the Government’s Administration, who is a member of the purchase commission. All strings end up in his hands. The purchase documentation bears his signature. Karseladze implemented the purchase process ideally. In contrast to the items under Governmental orders, procured in previous years, he saved 30-40% or 12 million of the Governmental funds on the acquisition of same machinery. However, the investigation does not care to see it. I don’t know why.
Q: Lawyer Soso Baratashvili hinted that this peculiarity can be resolved if the identity of an entity responsible for the purchase of tractors in the last years is known. Do you know the company?
A: It is the ill-fated GT Group led by Mr. Gogsadze. For three years, this company has been purchasing buses and yellow mini-buses without any tender. This year, the tender launched by the Agricultural Ministry, drew in as many as 21 companies. Three of them won, GT Group among them. Yet, they wanted more because they enjoy monopoly in this business and they were hiking up prices artificially.
Q: Who is behind the GT Group?
A: Some say it is the City Mayor Gigi Ugulava and Vano Merabishvili. Probably due investigation will reveal everything.
Q: How the investigation extorted the desired testimony from you?
A: I refused to testify against Davit. I did not mention his surname. So the prosecutor Giorgi Davitashvili wanted to know the reason, especially when Dato and I were classmates. He dictated even the reply to his own question. He was so fast when dictating that I could not make out what I was writing actually. I signed under the text, which I was forced to write without reading it. I managed to get hold of the text only after I left the prison and I was extremely appalled about horrible things that turned out to have been written by me. That’s why I distance myself from this testimony, which basically harms not Dato but me. Anyone, who’ll read the text will feel there is something terribly wrong about the author. Any person writing such things in good mental health should just go and hang himself.
Zaza Makharoblidze, Professor, currently a prison inmate: “During the Commission meetings the head of GT Group and Zviad Bregvadze of World Technology were demanding provocatively that their goods ought to be purchased because of low prices. The matter goes about Turkish tractors which have not been put to tests even. Their import amounted to a state level crime, the sabotage of the State Program.”
Soso Baratashvili, Lawyer: “Today, the people who stumble upon cutoffs of their money supplies that once were worth millions, are crying out loud for justice. I am surprised about the position of General Prosecutor Archil Kbilashvili. It should be a matter of his honor to investigate the case decently. Yet, actually, he does not look set to do it.”
to write without reading it. I managed to get hold of the text only after I left the prison and I was extremely appalled about horrible things that turned out to have been written by me. That’s why I distance myself from this testimony, which basically harms not Dato but me. Anyone, who’ll read the text will feel there is something terribly wrong about the author. Any person writing such things in good mental health should just go and hang himself.
Zaza Makharoblidze, Professor, currently a prison inmate: “During the Commission meetings the head of GT Group and Zviad Bregvadze of World Technology were demanding provocatively that their goods ought to be purchased because of low prices. The matter goes about Turkish tractors which have not been put to tests even. Their import amounted to a state level crime, the sabotage of the State Program.”
Soso Baratashvili, Lawyer: “Today, the people who stumble upon cutoffs of their money supplies that once were worth millions, are crying out loud for justice. I am surprised about the position of General Prosecutor Archil Kbilashvili. It should be a matter of his honor to investigate the case decently. Yet, actually, he does not look set to do it.”