Tea Tsulukiani: Sulkhan Molashvili endured cruel treatment in solitary confinement; EU Ambassador should focus away from Saakashvili and UNM
“I was working at the Strasbourg Court when Molashvili’s case was submitted. The documentation clearly indicated that this individual had been tortured in prison. No embassy in Georgia, nor any foreign entities intervened, behaving as if nothing were amiss because they were focused on facilitating Saakashvili’s resurgence. Sulkhan Molashvili and his case were, in reality, obstacles to that agenda,” Tea Tsulukiani, chairwoman of the Temporary Investigative Commission to Examine the Activities of the Regime and Its Political Officials from 2003 to 2012, addressed the commission regarding the case of Sulkhan Molashvili.
According to Tsulukiani, Molashvili’s case established a significant precedent, enabling numerous prisoners to submit complaints in Strasbourg and seek similar temporary measures.
“Before the Sulkhan Molashvili case, the Strasbourg Court had never mandated any state, let alone Georgia, to provide humane treatment to a prisoner. Such orders had previously been reserved for extraordinary circumstances, like deportations, expulsions, or situations that could lead to family separations when a husband was deported abroad while his wife and children remained behind. In other cases, no such rulings had been issued. The documentation surrounding Sulkhan Molashvili demonstrated the severity of his condition; there was an imminent risk of death in prison. It was at that time that the Strasbourg Court set the first precedent by ordering his transfer to a hospital for treatment of hepatitis C. This significant ruling paved the way for many other prisoners to file complaints in Strasbourg and request similar temporary measures,” Tsulukiani elaborated.
Tsulukiani emphasized the importance of the current EU ambassador evaluating the treatment of Sulkhan Molashvili.
“It would be beneficial if the EU ambassador redirected his focus away from Saakashvili and the United National Movement,” she remarked.
“Mr Guram, this reflects the behaviour of foreign entities at that time. I wholeheartedly support your call alongside my colleagues. Sulkhan Molashvili’s father, who has attested to the torture endured by his son when Saakashvili imprisoned him out of personal vendetta, described the appalling conditions: confined on the -1st floor in a cell without air, food, a chair, or a bed, with cigarette burns on his back. If he had not cried out for help, they would have suffocated him with plastic wrap while cursing him and neglecting his hepatitis C treatment. They forced his family outside to purchase a country house that was subsequently handed over to the state. Let the current EU ambassador step forward and provide us with an answer—just one word on whether this treatment is good or bad. We ask for nothing more. It would be best if he personally ceased his focus on Saakashvili and the United National Movement,” concluded Tea Tsulukiani.