"Teenager arrested and beaten for wearing a hoodie" - Scandal in Abkhazia over police abuse

Marina Kobakhia

Sukhum

Police beats a teenager in Abkhazia

The mother of the teenager, who suffered from police abuse in Abkhazia, began to fight the system alone.

It all started on April 17th. Sukhum resident Irina Ajba posted on her Facebook about an incident where police officers attacked her sixteen-year-old son, Georgy Gamgia, the previous night.

Criminal investigation officers in plain clothes chased him into the yard and then stormed into the house, where, despite pleas from the father, grandfather, and mother, they restrained the boy and took him to the city police department. The boy was held there until morning.

“My son was visiting his aunt. The children were playing computer games and stayed up late until the lights were turned off. Then he left my sister’s house, which is nearby, and headed home.

On the way, he noticed a black Mark X car with tinted windows following him. When the car approached him and stopped, the child got scared and ran home.

He couldn’t open the gate with the keys, so he decided to climb over the fence. At that moment, two unknown men in civilian clothes grabbed him by the hair. He did manage to climb over and ran into the house screaming. These two started shouting after him.

The father of the child came out and opened the gate. Without explaining anything, they rushed into the yard, went upstairs, and grabbed the child. The child began to scream and cry, telling them that he was scared and in pain.

In response, one of them grabbed him by the throat and forcibly took him out of the house. They hit him on the head, on the face, shoved him into the car, and broke his phone. The father tried to stop them, but he was also hit,” described the events of that night the mother of the teenager, Irina Ajba.

She says that the boy has developmental peculiarities, and this incident exacerbated his condition.

“Due to the incident, the child developed a nervous tic, the left side of his face and eye twitch. I had to take him to Sochi to see a neurologist,” Irina Ajba told journalists.

A few days after the publication of this story, when journalists became interested in the incident, the Sukhum prosecutor’s office began an investigation. The prosecutor’s office press service announced on social media that ‘Georgy Gamgia was detained by unidentified individuals who presented themselves as police officers.’

The prosecutor’s office message stated that a decision would be made based on the results of the investigation in accordance with the law. However, more than a week has passed, and there has been no legal assessment of the violence against the teenager.

At the same time, the head of the criminal investigation department, Alfred Narmania, contacted Irina Ajba and attempted to resolve the situation, urging her to ‘forgive and forget.’ He called her and pleaded with her to drop the case and stop publicly calling for a fair investigation of the incident.

Instead, the mother recorded the conversation with Narmania and handed the recording to journalists for publication.

The Commissioner for Children’s Rights, Maktina Jinjolia, has sent inquiries to the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Prosecutor’s Office to clarify the circumstances of the teenager’s detention.

So far, the Ministry of Internal Affairs has provided only one explanation for the reasons for the teenager’s detention: “he was wearing a hood over his head, which aroused operational interest.” The MIA press service does not provide any other reasons.

The MIA also does not disclose the names of the police officers who attacked the teenager and does not mention the violence against Georgy Gamgia.

“I’ve been receiving calls urging me to remove the posts and resolve this issue quietly, but I refuse to do so. This is the only way to deal with police misconduct.”

Rights activists and many journalists stand in solidarity with her, issuing a joint statement:
“Children need protection, not abuse from those who are supposed to protect them.”

“This is a gross violation of human rights and the Constitution. The actions of the criminal investigation department officers were not only illegal but also utterly inhumane.

Particular concern is raised by the fact that the MIA has not yet named the perpetrators and has not provided any official information about the progress of the investigation. Such behavior creates the impression of an attempt to cover up the crime.

We also express deep concern about the attempts by MIA officers to pressure the family of the affected teenager to conceal the crime. Such actions are unacceptable and should not go unnoticed by the responsible authorities.”

The statement’s authors called for an independent investigation into the incident involving community representatives. They also called for an internal investigation within the law enforcement agencies to identify systemic violations that may have led to such an incident.

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