School Killing Main Witness Sentenced to Imprisonment on Murder Charges

Mikheil Kalandia, the main witness of the so called Khorava Street case, was sentenced to imprisonment as a preventive measure by Tbilisi City Court on June 6.

On June 5, the detainee was charged with the murder of 16-year-old Davit Saralidze. He was charged by the Prosecutor’s Office under Subparagraphs “B” and “E”, Paragraph II, Article 109 of the Criminal Code of Georgia, involving intentional murder of a minor committed by a group of persons in aggravating circumstances.

The decision of imprisonment was announced by Judge Ekaterine Kululashvili on Thursday.

Kalandia was a minor on December 1, 2017 when the incident took place in central Tbilisi, seeing two teenagers, Davit Saralidze and Levan Dadunashvili, stabbed to death in a street brawl.

The case to date.

On May 31, 2018, Tbilisi City Court charged two minors: one for the premeditated murder of Dadunashvili and the second for the attempted murder of Saralidze; however, the court could not say who had killed Saralidze, which sparked mass protests in the capital organized by his father, Zaza Saralidze.

Georgia’s Chief Prosecutor Irakli Shotadze resigned amid the protest rallies, while then-Prime Minister Giorgi Kvirikashvili ordered a re-investigation of the case to answer the many unanswered questions.

The police also detained former high-ranking officials of the Prosecutor’s Office, Mirza Subeliani and Merab Morchadze, on charges of failure to report a crime and exertion of influence on a witness, respectively.

In June 2018, a fact-finding commission was set up in Parliament to investigate the now-notorious Khorava Street case, which delivered its conclusion in September 2018. Although the opposition and majority MPs have diverged in their vision of the case, the final resolution requested the Interior Ministry launch a criminal investigation against Mikheil Kalandia. The Ministry said then that the commission recommendations had no obligatory character but stressed that investigation was indeed underway.

In total, 10 people have been charged for various offenses connected to the case, among them for giving false testimony and failing to report a crime.

On June 3, 2019, the Court of Appeals announced that the sentence of one of the convicts (G. B.), who was found guilty of the premeditated murder of Levan Dadunashvili, had been reclassed as “aggravated” and that he would remain in prison for 11 years and three months.

Second convict G. J., saw the Court partially taking into consideration the prosecution’s arguments and re-qualifying the initial charges of the attempted murder of Davit Saralidze to a charge of “partaking in group murder.” He was sentenced to 11 years and three months in jail.

The next day, Georgia’s Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA), arrested the key witness of the case, Mikheil Kalandia and on June 5th he was officially charged for the murder of Saralidze.

What do the sides say?

Mikheil Kalandia’s family says his detention is a “political motivated” step. The detainee’s father Tengiz Kalandia claims that if his son was guilty, he would have been detained when the crime was committed.

He also accuses police of physical abusing he and his son, adding they made Kalandia write the testimony under pressure and threat of violence.

Tengiz Kalandia spoke about the time he was detained on charges of concealing the crime and noted that he was forced to give testimony under pressure.

“Police officers physically abused me. They wrote the testimony themselves and forced my children and I to sign it. They threatened my children by saying they would arrest their mother and younger sister. They ate me and my children. Our testimonies were not written by us. They are fabricated by high-ranking officials of the Ministry of Internal Affairs so they can keep their posts,” he said.

The father of the detainee says he and his elder son might have been arrested to “silence them.”

Kalandia’s lawyer, Ana Kotetishvili, says the information that was spread claiming her defendant was planning to leave the country is not true.

“We have not seen anything on the list of evidence so far that would confirm Mikheil Kalandia committed the crime. He does not plead guilty,” the lawyer says.

Zaza Saralidze, who has been holding protests since May 2018, welcomed Kalandia’s arrest, however, he noted there are more people involved in the case. He said justice has “been partially restored” but added “the struggle for justice goes on.”

“I will see how everything develops…I always knew the police would arrest him because his participation in the crime was obvious from the beginning,” the man said.

Saralidze’s lawyer, Nestan Londaridze, claims there are still many unanswered questions which need to be dealt with.

"We cannot say this case is over, because we have many questions, including a civil offense - why this case was brought so far and who is responsible?" she said.

The NGO position.

Public Defender of Georgia Nino Lomjaria believes the investigation “failed to reveal all allegedly responsible individuals for the murder of a juvenile on Khorava Street.” Lomjaria said that a year ago, she examined the mentioned case materials and discovered that the murder of David Saralidze had not been fully or effectively investigated, adding that the recent developments, including the verdict of the Court of Appeals, also show the case was not fully and effectively investigated.

The Ombudsman called on the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the General Prosecutor's Office to identify and institute criminal proceedings against all individuals who were involved in the gang murder of Davit Saralidze, and for an investigation to be launched regarding facts of civil offense, in particular against the employees of investigative bodies regarding alleged destruction of evidence and delay to the investigation.

NGOs also say investigation should show those whose investigative actions went in the wrong direction and led to them being unable to discover the truth. Sulkhan Saladze from the NGO Georgian Young lawyers Association says it is obvious the investigation was undertaken with flaws.

“It is important that society knows what actions were taken this this year and a half by investigators, and if it will be followed by the responsibility of these individuals,” he added.

MP COMMENTS.

President's Spokesperson Khatia Moistsrapishvili said at a briefing that the President of Georgia believes restoration of justice is of utmost importance.

“The President believes families must have answers to all their questions and there should be no doubt regarding injustice. Let’s wait and see. The main thing is restoration of justice – this is the position of the President of Georgia,” she said.

Parliament Speaker Irakli Kobakhidze noted the ruling Georgian Dream (GD) always believed the situation would change when the case went to the second instance court.

"When discussions were launched in different formats, we always said we should wait for an investigation and resultant decisions. This case was discussed at the first instance and you see that there is a change at the second instance. Of course, the changes result from additional information that the court received in relation to the case,” he noted.

Member of the opposition party European Georgia and member of the parliament’s fact-finding commission Elene Khoshtaria said during the investigation that MPs had found 11 people responsible in relation to the case.

“It is sad that it took eight months to do what was clear from the work of the Commission…However, this is a very important step…The decent developments show that some people were covering for the guilty persons for specific interests. This also needs to be investigated,” she said.

By Thea Morrison

Image source: IPN