Report of the Public Council at the Public Defender’s Office of Georgia on the Special Operation of 28 August 2012 near the village of Lapankuri, Lopota Gorge, Georgia
On 28 – 29 August 2012, the representatives of the Georgian law enforcement agencies conducted an operation near the village of Lapankuri located in Lopota Gorge, which, according to official information, resulted in the loss of lives of seven members of an armed group and three staff members of Georgian law enforcement agencies.
In December 2012, the Public Defender of Georgia initiated an investigation of this occurrence and included observationa in respected chapters of a report to the Parliament of Georgia in compliance with the Law of Georgia on Public Defender. The Public Defender of Georgia addressed the Parliament with a recommendation to set up a parliamentary investigation commission to probe into the events of August 2012 in the village of Lapankuri, Lopota gorge. However, the Parliament declined the recommendation on the ground that respective agencies had already launched an investigation of the Lapankuri case.
Because of a high profile of the case as well as to ensure protection of the victims’ rights, resting upon the competences and authorities granted by the Law of Georgia on Public Defender, on 22 October 2013 Public Defender set up a public council to study and document evidence of alleged violations of human rights and freedoms. The Council consists of the following members: Ucha Nanuashvili, Soso Tsiskarishvili, Lia Mukhashavria, Kakha Kakhishvili, Umar Idigov, Zaur Gumashvili, Kaso Kangoshvili, Morat Kavtarashvili, Vakhtang Maisaia, Mamuka Areshidze, Tamar GAbisonia and Gela Nikolaishvili.
The Council does not represent an alternative investigation body; rather it serves to contribute to effective, transparent and thorough investigation.
The methodological approach of the Council implied collecting available information on the Lapankuri operation through open sources, identifying and interviewing persons with the information on the case and interviewing the victims’ family members. Throughout a year’s work, the Council members interviewed 14 persons including the family members of the deceased as a result of the operation, a former employee of the Ministry of Interior, local residents of the village Lapankuri including a former hostage, also those who claimed to possess information on the developments taking place near the village of Lapankuri on 28-29 August 2012. The Public Defender visited Lapankuri on 16 May 2014 where according to official version, a confrontation between the law enforcement agencies and an illegal armed group took place.
In spite of numerous efforts of the Council members, all but one former hostage, a family member of one of the deceased employees, Solomon Tsikaluri and former deputy minister of the Ministry of Interior Giorgi Lortkipanidze refused to convey information on the case to the Council members.
The present report represents a compilation of factual data, collected by the Council, description of the official account released by the law enforcement agencies on the Lapankuri events of 28-29 August, information pertaining to the investigation provided by the Ministry of Interior and Chief Prosecutor’s office while the afterward of the report deals with those questions which have emerged as a result of analysis of available information. The questions are yet to be answered by the respective agencies. Sadly, a series of questions have remained unanswered as the Chief Prosecutor’s office and the Ministry of Interior refused to provide information justifying that the criminal proceedings are ongoing on the case. The Council would have been able to investigate a range of factual circumstances with more clarity and draw appropriate conclusions had the information been released by the respective agencies. It is worth noting that the present report does not aim at exposing the Lapankuri events in the light of geopolitical and geostrategic (military-political) context which, the Council believes, remains within the realm of the respective state agencies of Georgia.
