Ketevan Bakaradze testified in court on the Chorchana case

Testimony on the Chorchana case

The charge brought against former Interior Minister and Prime Minister Giorgi Gakharia involves abuse of official authority (Article 333, Part 2), which carries a penalty of 3 to 5 years in prison. According to the prosecution, Gakharia made the decision to erect an additional police checkpoint near the village of Chorchana unilaterally. As a result, approximately one hundred hectares of forest came under the control of occupation forces, heavy military equipment was moved, and houses in the Khashuri municipality villages of Kobi and Tsnelisi ended up in the occupied territory. Interpressnews+1

Ketevan Bakaradze, a fellow party member of Gakharia and a member of the Committee on De-occupation, testified in court. According to Bakaradze, in 2019, when she was the Minister of Health of the Autonomous Republic of Abkhazia, Chorchana was an area of their interest. The witness noted that the appearance of yellow markings on the forest cover in 2018 gave them the impression that the borderization of new territories had begun. Interpressnews+2

Assessment of the checkpoint

According to Bakaradze, government members learned about the installation of the checkpoint together, which caused a sense of pride among them. She said that many people were proud of this decision, but later they "changed their colors." Interpressnews+2

In December of last year, Bakaradze visited Chorchana with Shalva Kereselidze and Giga Parulava. According to her testimony, the local population stated that Gakharia was the first to take an interest in their problems. According to Bakaradze, the residents explained that if the police checkpoint had not been installed in 2019, the territory would be occupied today, and if the checkpoint were removed, the population would leave the area. Interpressnews+1