Tamaz Shavshishvili, a journalist of Georgia’s Rustavi 2 television, said on Nov. 20 that officers of the Security Service of Ukraine, or SBU, kicked him severely when they detained him in his Kyiv apartment on Nov. 17.
Shavshishvili, along with three other associates of ex-Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili, was subsequently deported to Georgia in what they say was an illegal operation without due process or any court warrants.
SBU spokeswoman Olena Hitlianska denied the accusations.
A Kyiv Post reporter saw stains of blood on the floor and on a towel in Shavshishvili’s apartment after his kidnapping on Nov. 17, as well as a copy of a contract between Shavshvishvili and his lawyer Pavlo Bogomazov lying on the floor.
Shavshishvili said SBU employees had put adhesive tape on his eyes, and his nose was bleeding due to a beating. Shavshishvili’s nose was broken.
He also said that Valery Heletei, head of the State Security Department, had been in charge of the kidnapping operation.
Another kidnapped Georgian – Vano Nadiradze, a veteran of Ukraine’s war with Russia – said he had seen Heletei and National Police Deputy Chief Vyacheslav Abroskin at a military airfield after he was kidnapped, as cited by his acquaintance David Makishvili. Nadiradze said he had also been beaten.
Nadiradze and Shavshishvili also said that their passports had been stolen.
Heletei dismissed the accusations against him as “nonsense” on Nov. 20, saying that the State Security Department was not involved in deportations. Abroskin did not respond to a request for comment.
An eyewitness of the Oct. 21 kidnapping of Makishvili, a Saakashvili associate who was also deported to Georgia without a court warrant, told the Kyiv Post that one of the people who kidnapped Makishvili presented himself as an employee of the State Security Department and showed a State Security Department ID.
Under Ukrainian law, the State Security Department has no right to take part in deportations. If it did this, it would constitute abuse of power.
Apart from Nadiradze and Shavshishvili, Saakashvili’s security guard Zurab Tsintsadze and Mamuka Abashidze, who fought Russian troops in the Donbas, were also deported.
The SBU said on Nov. 17 that it had deported eight citizens of Georgia to their homeland jointly with the National Police, State Migration Service and State Border Guard. The SBU claimed that the Georgians’ activities endanger national security, without specifying what the alleged security threats were, and that the deportation was carried out according to the law.
However, as of late Nov. 20, Ukrainian authorities refused to say if there is any documentary proof or court warrants for the Georgians’ deportation. Under Ukrainian law, forced deportation is only possible with a court warrant.
Moreover, the deportation of Nadiradze was explicitly banned by a court warrant. The Kyiv Post obtained a photo of the warrant.
Nadiradze has also said before that he faced political persecution in Georgia by the incumbent authorities, which are opponents of Saakashvili. He has said that he could be jailed for five years if he returns to Georgia.
Boris Zakharov, a top member of the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union, said on Facebook on Nov. 19 that the kidnapping and deportation of the Saakashvili associates violated Ukrainian law, Article 29 of Ukraine’s Constitution and Article 5 of the European Convention of Human Rights. He added that the events can be qualified as a crime under the Criminal Code article on kidnapping.
The Georgians say they were transported on three helicopters from Kyiv to Odesa and then by ferry to the Georgian city of Poti.
In a similar case, Makishvili, who fought Russian troops in the Donbas; Georgy Rubashvili, one of Saakashvili’s former security guards, and Saakashvili’s former driver Mikhail Abzianidze say they were kidnapped in Kyiv, beaten, and then illegally transported to Georgia without a court warrant by Ukrainian authorities on Oct. 21. The authorities deny accusations of wrongdoing.
The State Migration Service and Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko said on Oct. 24 that Saakashvili and 20 more Georgians could also be deported.
The Prosecutor General’s Office has so far refused to investigate the alleged kidnappings.
A court warrant that bans the deportation of Vano Nadiradze.
