Case of Cleric Charged for Attempted Murder Sent to Strasbourg Court
By Tea Mariamidze
Monday, February 4
Case of clergyman Giorgi Mamaladze, who was sent to prison for nine years for attempted murder of the patriarch’s female secretary, has been sent to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR).
Mamaladze’s lawyer, Davit Jandieri has not specified the details of the complaint, but he said the case was sent to the Strasbourg court on January 31.
"Within the 6-month period established by the Convention, on 31 January, I filed a complaint to the European Court of Human Rights on behalf of archpriest Giorgi Mamaladze,” he said.
The lawyer expressed hope that the ECHR will take into consideration the violation of human rights in this case.
In early February last year, Georgia’s Chief Prosecutor’s Office announced that they had detained archpriest Giorgi Mamaladze, the deputy head of the Patriarchate’s Property Management Service and director general of the Patriarchate’s medical center, at Tbilisi International Airport, from where he intended to depart for Germany on February 10.
At that time the Patriarch was in Germany, where he was operated on for bladder-related complications.
The Prosecutor’s Office said that Mamaladze had attempted to acquire cyanide, and the man from whom he tried to receive the substance (journalist Irakli Mamaladze, the detained archpriest’s close friend and relative) informed the police that the archpriest intended to kill a high ranking figure at the Patriarchate.
In September 2017, Tbilisi City Court sentenced Mamaladze to nine years in prison. The cleric denies charges.
The man claims it was Patriarch’s secretary, Shorena Tetruashvili, who asked him to purchase the cyanide to clean icons.
Some members of the church claim that Mamaladze knew about various financial and property-related violations within the church, which is why he was “trapped by some people involved in illegalities.”
