SENTENCING IN THE GIORGADZE TREASON CASE

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 TBILISI 002484 SIPDIS SIPDIS DEPARTMENT FOR EUR/CARC E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/10/2017 TAGS: PGOV PREL GG SUBJECT: SENTENCING IN THE GIORGADZE TREASON CASE REF: A. TBILISI 2019 ¶B. TBILISI 2139 ¶C. TBILISI 2151 Classified By: Ambassador John F. Tefft for reasons 1.4(b) and (d). -------------- Summary -------------- ¶1. (C) As promised to the Ambassador (ref C) the office of the Prosecutor General made the trial court's decision in the Maia Topuria treason case available to the Embassy. On August 24, the Tbilisi City Court found all 13 defendants linked to Igor Giorgadze's Justice Party guilty of treason in a conspiracy to violently take over the State Chancellery, site of the Georgian President's and Prime Minister's offices. The court sentenced them to periods of imprisonment up to 8 years (ref B). Topuria, Giorgadze's niece and an alleged ringleader of the conspiracy, was sentenced to 8 years imprisonment. Topuria's U.S. Counsel, Larry Barcella, claimed that the trial court's reasoning in the case was flawed because: 1) the government coached the witnesses, 2) the court rejected the defendants' alibi witnesses' testimony simply because of the witnesses' bias, and 3) the government changed the dates on documents in evidence from May 24 to May 4 in order to implicate defendants who were allegedly absent from the country on May 4, when the conspiratorial conversations allegedly took place. Post had the court's decision translated by a native Georgian speaker who is also a lawyer. Poloff and Embassy DOJ Legal Advisor have carefully reviewed the decision. Post's assessment is that the Tbilisi Court supports its decision with objective evidence and addresses Barcella's concerns. End Summary. -------------- Background of the Plot -------------- ¶2. (U) Maia Topuria and several other Georgian citizens were arrested in September 2006 and charged with conspiracy to overthrow the government, preparation of an armed riot, and incitement to purchase illegal arms. According to the findings of the trial court, Topuria held a meeting on May 4 at the Samartlianoba (Justice) Party Headquarters to which she invited members of the Conservative-Monarchist Party and the Twenty-First Century Party. Topuria briefed them about Giorgadze's plan to overthrow the existing Georgian government, with the assistance and financing from Russia. Firearms and other combat material were to be purchased and used during diversionary demonstrations, during which the State Chancellery would be overrun and occupied. At the same time, security guards, who had been paid off by Giorgadze, would fire in the direction of protesters, causing civil unrest. Using the advantage of the resulting confusion, some pre-recruited armed persons were to kill law enforcement ministers, thereby paralyzing these agencies. The President of Georgia, the Chairman of Parliament, and the Prime Minister were to be isolated and forced to resign, triggering special elections. Except for two, all those present agreed to the plan, with the understanding that they would receive 3,000-5,000 USD for their participation. The money was to finance recruitment of one hundred participants by each of them to take part in the armed actions. It was understood that all participants would receive a guarantee of immunity from Igor Giorgadze after he came into power upon dissolution of the government. ¶3. (U) Police seized USD 46,730, 300 euros, and 780 Russian rubles from Topuria's apartment on September 6, which were allegedly destined for the pay-off of participants in the attack on the government. On the same date two additional searches were carried out at the Office of the Youth Union of the Samartlianoba Party and at the residence of Kakhaber Kantaria, one of those charged along with Topuria. The search at the Youth Union yielded nine polyethylene colored bags containing leaflets calling for violent overthrow of the government and the GEL 34,000 allegedly intended for use in carrying out the plan. A search at Kakhabaer Kantaria's residence revealed a cache of firearms and combat material which included 29 submachine-guns (models AKM, AKMC, and AK-74) with ammunition, six sealed khaki color metal boxes intended for ammunition, 20 grenades, two sealed metal boxes for grenade rings, 29 small boxes labeled "TNT Unit 2002", one PKM-FT701-1968 machine gun and nine grenade guns with ammunition. According to a ballistic examination report, the weapons seized were fully functional. -------------- Procedural Concerns During the Trial -------------- TBILISI 00002484 002 OF 003 ¶4. (C) On August 24, the Tbilisi City Court sentenced all 13 defendants charged in the case to prison. Post met four times with Larry Barcella and Melinda Serafa, U.S. counsels for Topuria, to listen to their concerns about due process and violations of criminal procedures during the trial. Barcella protested the closure of the court room due to concerns about the safety of witnesses. Post also raised the issue at higher levels with GoG authorities (refs A and C). ¶5. (C) On September 21, the Embassy received a Georgian language version of the court's explanation of its verdict. A translation was carefully reviewed by the Embassy's Department of Justice Resident Legal Advisor. Barcella has claimed that the reasoning in the case was flawed because: 1) the government coached the witnesses, 2) the court rejected the defendants' alibi witnesses' testimony simply because of the witnesses' bias, and 3) the government changed the dates on documents in evidence from May 24 to May 4 in order to implicate defendants who were allegedly absent from the country on May 24. -------------- Were Witnesses Coached? -------------- ¶6. (C) Barcella claimed that the government witnesses manufactured their testimony based on threats or coaching. The court specifically addressed this issue, noting that the witnesses themselves testified that their testimony was not the result of threats or coaching. "Giorgi Siprashvili, Nino Khmaladze, Vaja Sikhradulidze, Ramin Adeishvili, Giorgi Bzishvili, Jumber Katamadze, Irma Jogiashvili and David Lomidze, as well as defendant Maia Nikoleishvili firmly denied any pressure or dictation of testimony from the representatives of law enforcement in the course of their interrogations and they also denied knowing each other." The existence of some slight differences in the witnesses' testimony may indicate that they were not coached. ¶7. (C) The witnesses' testimony is consistent with regard to the significant elements regarding the conspiracy (how it was to take place, when it was to take place, who would be involved, and the amounts to be paid),but certain witnesses recalled individuals being present at the May 4 meeting while others did not cite those people as being present. This would appear to support a contention that the government did not coach or threaten them. If the government had coached or threatened the witnesses, there would be no logical reason for some witnesses to mention certain conspirators' presence, but for other witnesses to forget to include some other conspirators. -------------- Bias? -------------- ¶8. (C) Barcella argued that the court rejected the defendants' alibi claims simply because the defense witnesses had a bias based on their prior relationships with the defendants. The court noted on several occasions the witnesses' relationship with the defendants. However, it also looked at objective evidence. For example, the court noted that law enforcement officials found large sums of money at Maia Topuria's apartment. ¶9. (C) Similarly, the court rejected Topuria's claim that she could not have conducted a meeting on May 4 because she was giving an interview to Russian journalists that day. It noted that based on documents from the Department of Border Protection, the only journalists to whom Topuria claims she spoke left Georgia on May 3. "Prosecution was able to produce a record issued by the Department of Border Protection of Georgia showing that journalists D. Pimenov, and P. Gulenko crossed the national border of Georgia on May 3, 2006, at 0637 am." -------------- May 24 versus May 4 -------------- ¶10. (C) Barcella claims that the prosecution changed the date of the conspiratorial meeting mentioned in documents presented in evidence from May 4 from May 24, after it learned that several defendants were out of the country on May 24. The court addressed that issue as well, noting neither the defendants nor the court ever cite a document alleging a May 24 meeting. Instead, the court noted that two search warrants--for the Samartlianoba Party's headquarters in Tbilisi and its regional office in Kakheti--cite May 4 as the day of the meeting. The court concluded that the number TBILISI 00002484 003 OF 003 "24" is only mentioned in connection with the Samartlianoba party's address in Tbilisi, 24 Rustaveli. "Defendants claim that as soon as arresting officials learned that some of them were outside of Georgia on May 24, they allegedly replaced the said date (May 24) in the court orders with May 4, 2006. The Court rejects the defendants' above allegations since the case material proved that court-issued warrants to search defendants' flats and offices were approved on September 5, 2006, and search warrants did indicate the date of conspiracy to be May 4. The number 24 was used in the court order only in connection with the address of the head office of the Samartlianoba Party which is 24 Rustaveli Ave." TEFFT