Press Digest 04.02.2014
Separatists plan to seize land from Georgian owners in Gali
What went on behind-the-scenes before the tennis court special operation?
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Separatists plan to seize land from Georgian owners in Gali
“Reportedly, separatist Government of Sukhumi plans to seize assets of Georgians who are not permanent residents of the region but own land there. Those who control Sukhumi are allegedly going to lease this land to the locals,”- reports the Rezonansi newspaper.
“In addition, the residents of Gali think that land value taxes might also increase in the region. Reports go that if today each family pays only 160 GEL for 1 ha of land, soon they will have to pay around 500-600 GEL,”- says the article.
“Temur Nadiraia, de-facto head of Gali regional administration, states that the government deems the residents of the region to be law-abiding people who are always ready to pay taxes. However, despite this there is still some unregistered land in the region the owners of which refuse to pay the land value tax,”- reads the paper.
Allegedly, the government plans to rectify the situation by seizing land from those in Gali who refuse to pay taxes for it.
“These people have not paid land value taxes for 20 years; if they continue to do so in the future, they will definitely lose their land. We will lease this land to locals who will till it and pay taxes,”- declares Mr. Nadaraia.
As it was already mentioned above, the land value tax is also expected to increase in Gali and this will, apparently, create additional problems for the locals; allegedly, home invasions are also commonplace in the region and the locals think that given the already bad situation, increasing taxes will be an outrageous decision.
“Since 2012, burglary has become rampant in the region and the crime rate has been alarmingly high there. People put blood, sweat and tears into work to feed their families, then some scoundrel breaks into their houses and clean them out.
Now they say that taxes will also increase. However, we still hope that this information does not ring true; otherwise, we will find ourselves in an extremely difficult situation,”- claims one of the residents of Gali.
What went on behind-the-scenes before the tennis court special operation?
“Zurab Vazagashvili’s case has been solved; however, many have been left with a number of unanswered questions still swirling around the case.
A statement from the Prosecutor’s Office proves that Deputy Director of the MIA Criminal Police Department, Irakli Pirtskhalava, did the shady special operation to get even with Khubulov, who cooperated with the Special Operative Department (SOD). Allegedly, the latter set Pirtskhalava up and got him jailed. In those days, Erekle Kodua presided over SOD and Vano Merabishvili placed confidence in him,”- reports the Alia publication.
“The abovementioned information can make us wonder: if Irakli Pirtskhalava was such an influential man how did SOD dare to keep his brother behind bars? Or if they jailed Levan Pirtskhalava, thus humiliating his high-ranking brother, how did Irakli Pirtskhalava manage to carry out such a large-scale special operation in order to eliminate Alexandre Khubulov, a SOD agent? Plus, why did Irakli Kodua shrug off this fact?”- Asks the author of the article.
“Apparently, these questions have very simple answers. As they say, Erekle Kodua opposed Irakli Pirtskhalava. He was on top of things and knew that Irakli’s brother was being kept in custody, turning a deaf ear to his requests to release him. However, according to our source, later Pirtskhalava and Kodua made up thanks to Vano Merabishvili. In a nutshell, by incarcerating Irakli Pirtskhalava’s brother, Kodua and Merabishvili got hold of compromising materials against him, while Kodua had his revenge on Pirtskhalava,”- says the paper.
“As it appears, SOD got rid of its top informer Alexandre Khubulov since he fulfilled his primary task by getting a high ranking police official’s brother arrested. Shortly after this, SOD stopped worrying about his fate, since replacing him was no big deal. Thus, when Khubulov was killed, Erekle Kodua did nothing.
As our source claims, Vano Merabishvili knew that the special operation was going to take place and he personally allowed Irakli Pirtskhalava to take vengeance on Khubulov, and, allegedly, if the investigators are not thrown off the scent, they will dig up enough evidence against Merabishvili as well,”- concludes the author of the article.
