According to Malkhaz Velijanashvili, the lawyer of former Defense Minister Bacho Akhalaia, who was detained on charges of organizing and leading group violence, the decision to impose detention as a preventive measure will be appealed to the Court of Appeal.

As the lawyer told InterpressNews, there is no evidence in the case, and the defense is demanding that Akhalaia be left without any preventive measure.

“Today I am filing an appeal regarding the application of the preventive measure. Our demand remains unchanged - we request that no preventive measure be applied. As for expectations, I do not have any positive expectations, but we plan to appeal this issue to the European Court of Human Rights, and this is of a formal nature, as it is mandatory to exhaust all domestic legal remedies,” the lawyer stated.

According to Velijanashvili, “Bacho Akhalaia is shocked, as he cannot recall a single case where someone was detained solely because of a phone call.”

The lawyer explained that the investigation does not even know whether the communication allegedly made from the IP address was a call, a message, or some other form of contact. He said this is complete absurdity and cannot be considered evidence.

“The second issue, which is the most important and outrageous for him, is that both he and his wife were detained, and this was used as a form of blackmail. He cannot recall such practices even in dictatorial countries that everyone knows. No one remembers a situation where a wife was detained and bargaining was conducted in exchange for testimony.

There is absolutely no evidence. What is being discussed is the form of communication - that allegedly communication with Paata Burchuladze was carried out from an IP address belonging to Ani Nadareishvili. They do not even know whether this communication was a call, an SMS, or something else - in other words, the content is unknown. It is also unknown who made the communication from that IP address and using which device. This is sheer absurdity and cannot be treated as evidence,” the lawyer said.

According to the defense, there is no evidence in the case at all.

“The [conversation during the communication] has not been extracted - such a thing does not exist and cannot be extracted, as the seizure was carried out later. With these technologies, it is impossible to retrieve such conversations. Moreover, at that time no event was even taking place. The phones have been seized, and they can check when and with whom communication took place. Everyone will be convinced that there is nothing criminal there. The communication that Bacho himself confirms took place over certain periods and concerned ordinary greetings, stemming from their family relationship. Not a single person gives testimony against him. There is nothing else in the case, and this is why a person has been detained. If they had anything more, they would have made it public at a briefing. There is no evidence whatsoever,” Velijanashvili said.

For reference, the court imposed detention as a preventive measure on Bacho Akhalaia. In connection with the October 4 case, he has been charged under Article 225, Part 1 of the Criminal Code of Georgia - organizing and leading group violence - which carries a sentence of up to nine years’ imprisonment.