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Kiev handed over to the Georgian authorities the former head of the Military Police of the Ministry of Defense Megis Kardava, who held this position during the presidency of Mikhail Saakashvili. About this on Friday reported Georgian TV channel Imedi. Earlier this week it became known that Kardava was taken under the protection of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.
A special flight from Kiev with Kardava on board landed at Tbilisi International Airport on September 17. The Georgian authorities have been looking for Kardava since 2013. During this time, several convictions were made against him in absentia.
The former chief of the Georgian Military Police was found guilty of degrading and inhuman treatment in the so-called prison riot of 2006 and sentenced to three years and nine months in prison. Another conviction against Kardava was for illegal imprisonment and organization of torture with the commission of a sexual nature. The basis of the criminal case was the records found in barrels buried in the ground in 2013 in the vicinity of the village of Narazeni, Zugdidi region, transfers TASS. On this charge, Megis Kardava received nine years in prison. He was sentenced to another nine years in prison for the torture of Colonel Sergo Tetradze in 2011. In total, nine convictions have already been passed against Kardava in absentia.
Five more criminal cases, in which the accused Kardava is being held, are being considered in court, and one case is at the stage of preliminary investigation. He is charged with embezzlement of state funds, torture of Eldar Kobalia, Koba Matkav and Merab Kolbai, Malkhaz Arkania, torture and illegal imprisonment of Elberd Koberidze and contract murder of Georgian Major General Roman Dumbadze in Moscow.
Megis Kardava was arrested on the territory of Ukraine on November 1, 2017 at the request of Georgia.
In 2018, the ex-official was relaxed by putting him under house arrest. But recently he was transferred to prison again, transfers “Georgia Online”.
On September 11, it was reported that the Ukrainian authorities were ready to extradite the former Georgian official. On the same day, it became known about the death of a Ukrainian judge who was considering the case of Kardava’s extradition. The body of Vitaly Pisants was found in the village of Pogreby, Kiev region, in the house where he came to visit. The exact cause of the judge’s death was not disclosed. The investigation is being conducted under the article “murder”.
September 15 in social networks published a document from which it followed that Kardavu was taken under the protection of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. The international protection under which Kardava was taken indicates that political persecution is being conducted against him, Malkhaz Velidzhanashvili, the lawyer of the ex-official, told reporters.
According to him, the office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees within three months will give the Ukrainian side a recommendation whether to extradite Kardav to Georgia or not. The lawyer also stressed that Ukraine has not yet resolved the issue of granting Kardav political asylum, therefore, it is initially wrong to conduct a case on his extradition in parallel. writes Echo of the Caucasus.
“The political persecution against Kardav is so obvious that a truly democratic state cannot extradite him. If, of course, Ukraine wants to be among the democratic countries. Probably, this is what the UN saw, and therefore stopped this procedure, which was completely illegal. The UN will study this case within three months and, possibly, will present some recommendations, ”Velidzhanashvili said.
Earlier, Kardava himself said that the accelerated consideration of the issue is “an act of political agreement between the parties.” He suggests that Kiev “informally traded” him for two Ukrainian sailors convicted in Batumi for violating the state border. They were pardoned by Georgian President Salome Zurabishvili.
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