A year has passed since Zviad Ratiani was subjected to physical violence by the police. Yet, in the course of the ongoing investigation conducted by the Prosecutor’s Office, no police officers implicated in the incident have been brought to justice, nor has Ratiani been granted official victim status. EMC is therefore addressing the Tbilisi Prosecutor’s Office, calling for the initiation of criminal proceedings by the Ministry of Internal Affairs against the officers involved in the assault.

As is widely known, on December 23, 2017, during a police raid in Tbilisi, Zviad Ratiani was administratively detained. From the moment of his arrest until his transfer to the temporary detention facility, he was subjected to repeated physical assaults by police officers, both during transportation in the police vehicle and later in the vicinity of the detention center.

Ratiani’s injuries were documented and confirmed by relevant medical records. Case materials further establish that he was unlawfully held for over an hour in a police vehicle near the temporary detention facility, for which the police have failed to provide any credible explanation. Forensic examinations have also confirmed the presence of traces of Ratiani’s blood inside the police vehicle. It should also be noted that Ratiani identified several of the police officers involved.

Under these circumstances, any further prolongation of the investigation without yielding concrete results is both incomprehensible and legally unjustified.

There has been no visible or demonstrated intent to conduct an impartial and effective investigation into the violence committed against Ratiani at any point. Even after a year of investigation, Ratiani has not been granted an official status of a victim. EMC submitted five distinct applications to the Tbilisi Prosecutor's Office, each of which requested that Ratiani be acknowledged as a victim. However, the Prosecutor's Office declined to grant this status without substantiated justification. The investigation is still ongoing to this day, and it is being carried out under the article of exceeding official power, which is a misclassification of the incident. The deliberate degrading treatment inflicted upon a person under the effective control of the police, combined with the number and nature of his injuries, required that the investigation be conducted under the more serious qualification from the outset.

In EMC’s assessment, notwithstanding the deficiencies demonstrated throughout the year-long investigation, the body of evidence currently available in the case provides sufficient grounds for adopting a conclusive decision and initiating criminal prosecution against the police officers responsible for the physical violence against Zviad Ratiani. To this end, EMC has already submitted a written appeal to the Tbilisi Prosecutor’s Office.

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