Chechen Militants Remain in Detention in Tbilisi
Tbilisi’s refusal to extradite 13 captured Chechens to Moscow worsened Russian-Georgian relations further. “Russia is deeply concerned with Georgia’s inconsistent position towards this matter,” Igor Ivanov, Russian Foreign Minister, stated on August 7 and added “playing games with terrorism might lead to very tragic outcomes”.
Russian Interior Minister Boris Grizlov also expressed concern with Georgia’s refusal. “Captured Chechens shall be extradited to Russia without delay. These persons have violated Russian laws at least twice – they crossed the state border and carried arms,” Grizlov said.
The State Security Ministry of Georgia charged 13 Chechens, who were captured on August 3-5 by the Georgian border guards near border with Chechnya, for illegal crossing of the state border and carrying of arms and explosives. District Court of Vake-Saburtalo, Tbilisi, sentenced all 13 for 3 months of preliminary detention.
Trial of August 7 concerned issue of sentencing 6 Chechens the penitential measures. All 6 were brought to the courthouse by a minibus with escort of armed employees of the Interior Ministry. Chechens were hiding their faces from the TV cameras with the newspapers and refused to answer to the journalists’ questions. Their lawyers said that they are willing to serve their terms in Georgia under the full strictness of law, only if they will not be extradited to the Russian law enforcers.
The Georgian side explained its refusal to the Russian Prosecutor General, who has visited Tbilisi for discussion of this matter, with the fact that the Russian side has not provided all necessary documents, required for their extradition.
“The Georgian side decided correctly to refuse extradition. What did Ustinov [the Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation] bring with him? – Nothing. Russia does not have any documents that would have proved that the captured Chechens have committed crimes in Russia, hence extradition can not take place,” said Gogita Gabaidze, lawyer of two detainees to Civil Georgia.
He said that 13 Chechens have violated the Georgian laws and were captured by the Georgian border guards; therefore there are no grounds for extradition. It will be difficult for the Russian side to prove that these Chechens were fighting against the Federal Forces, because even thought they say their names, they do not have any kind of identification documents. Therefore finding out their true identity would be a really hard task.
It is remarkable that these Chechens have certain ‘protectors’ in Georgia, because their lawyers were not provided by the state. “I can not tell you who is paying me for protecting them. It is a secret,” said Gogita Gabaidze. It quite might be that so called Representation of the Republic of Ichkeria (Chechnya) in Georgia is the source of such ‘protection’. The Russian side has been unsuccessfully urging closing down of this body for quite long period of time.
By Giorgi Sepashvili, Civil Georgia
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