Ombudswoman on high-profile ‘land-forfeit’ case: no evidence that suspects committed crime

Georgian Public Defender Nino Lomjaria says that there is no genuine evidence that former officials Iveri Melashvili and Natalia Ilichova had the intention to transfer sections of Georgian territory to Azerbaijan back in 2006 under the United National Movement government. 

• 2 detained for hiding evidence in Georgia-Azerbaijani border case leading to forfeit of 3,500 ha of land

Lomjaria also says that there is no evidence that would prove the existence of corruption, fraud, cheating, self-interest, or other motivation in the defendants' actions. 

Lomjaria has stated that the launch of the investigation into the case coincided with the 2020 parliamentary elections and ‘became the main pre-election political issue, which was used for campaign purposes’.

In our estimation, the case clearly has a political or other motive that outweighs the legal motive,” Lomjaria stated in her view (an amicus curiae brief) sent to the Tbilisi City Court. 

The Public Defender’s Office says that the view relies on the examination of 14 volumes of case materials, including covert investigative activities. 

Georgian Public Defender has submitted an amicus curiae brief to Tbilisi City Court on land forfeit case. Photo: Public Defender's press office. 

Two detainees in the Georgia-Azerbaijan ‘land forfeit’ high-profile case Melashvili and Ilichova were released on 20,000 GEL bail each in January 2021.

The Chief Prosecutor’s Office says that Melashvili, the former head of the Department for Border Relations with Neighbouring Countries and Ilichova, former Chief Inspector of the Land Border Protection Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, hid the original map of 1938 from the border commission members (which was chaired by Melashvili) and instead used a 1970-80s map in the process of demarcating the border.

The defendants plead not guilty to the accusations against them and say that the map was ‘worthless’ and was rejected in 2006-2007.  

The opposition says that Melashvili and Ilichova are ‘political prisoners.’ 

Since the collapse of the Soviet Union back in 1991, out of its four neighboring states Georgia has agreed upon its borders only with Turkey.

Only two-thirds of the state border has been agreed upon with Azerbaijan so far, which on several occasions triggered tension in David Gareji back in 2019.