On the Scene: The Lights Go Out in Georgia

ON March 6 Gedevan Gelbakhiani, a professor of medicine, and Irakli Dokvadse, an engineer, were sentenced to death by a Georgian court. Although they had retracted their initial “confessions,” which even the authorities admit were extracted under torture, they were found guilty of planting a bomb in Tblisi. Their trial has exposed as a sham Eduard Shevardnadze’s commitment to the rule of law.

The treatment of Gelbakhiani and Dokvadse is the tip of the iceberg regarding human-rights abuses in Georgia. In the same case another 17 men were found guilty on lesser charges. They are all “Zviadists,” supporters of the late Zviad Gamsakhurdia, the first democratically elected leader of Georgia, who was in power for 18 months before Shevardnadze’s supporters ousted him in 1992.

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Oliver Rooke

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ON March 6 Gedevan Gelbakhiani, a professor of medicine, and Irakli Dokvadse, an engineer, were sentenced to death by a Georgian court. Although they had retracted their initial “confessions,” which even the authorities admit were extracted under torture, they were found guilty of planting a bomb in Tblisi. Their trial has exposed as a sham Eduard Shevardnadze’s commitment to the rule of law.

The treatment of Gelbakhiani and Dokvadse is the tip of the iceberg regarding human-rights abuses in Georgia. In the same case another 17 men were found guilty on lesser charges. They are all “Zviadists,” supporters of the late Zviad Gamsakhurdia, the first democratically elected leader of Georgia, who was in power for 18 months before Shevardnadze’s supporters ousted him in 1992.