In Georgia, NGOs demand to hold an objective investigation into Girgvliani's murder

Representatives of the non-governmental organization "Institute for Equal Rights" (Georgia) have held today a peaceful protest action in Tbilisi Shardeni Street, where in January an incident took place entailing death of Sandro Girgvliani, 28 years old.

Irakly Kakabadze, chairman of the NGO, told the Black Sea Press Agency that the representatives of the organization pasted up posters along the street with a demand to hold an objective investigation of the crime, which involved the names of high-rank officials of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

For several recent months in a row, the non-governmental sector has been expressing its dissatisfaction with the attitude of the authorities to the incident, and with the negligence exhibited, in the opinion of NGO's representatives, by law enforcement bodies of Georgia when running the investigation.

At the same time, Irina Enukidze, mother of Sandro Girgvliani, employee of the "United Bank of Georgia," who was killed at the end of January, stated that she was offered any sum of money she would name in exchange of her ceasing to strive for punishment of the persons suspected by the public of involvement in the murder. Irina Enukidze told about that at the press conference on May 2 in the Coalition of Non-Governmental Organizations "For Democratic Georgia." In her words, more than two weeks ago, she was addressed with a proposal of this sort, stating that "if she does not stop herself, she will be stopped."

Several employees of the Department of Constitutional Security of the MIA of Georgia were arrested with the charges of the murder, however, the relatives if the victim and representatives of human rights organizations accuse MIA high rank officials of organizing the murder, and demand to bring them to responsibility, and resignation of minister Vano Merabishvili.

Irina Enukidze called the authorities of Georgia "to punish those guilty of the crime as soon as possible," the IA "Novosti-Georgia" reports.

The NGO representatives who were present at the press conference also asked about the special operation conducted by the workers of the criminal police in Tbilisi on May 2, in the course of which suspects were shot dead in place. According to Nanga Kakabadze, chairperson of the HGO "Former Political Prisoners for Human Rights," "such operations have become the politics of the authorities." "The employees of law enforcement bodies opened fire at the suspects' car without a warning," she said.

Anna Dolidze, chairperson of the Association of Young Lawyers of Georgia, stated that by "this sort of actions the MIA is trying to informally legitimize death penalty, which has been banned once and forever by the Georgian Constitution."