The wife of Artur Mkoyan, arrested in Akhalkalaki, accuses the head of the district police, Shalva Lomsadze, of her abduction and sexual violence. According to Mina Mkoyan, Shalva Lomsadze kidnapped her on December 24, 2021, and tried to rape her.
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"A black car with tinted windows was following me; they signalled, so I changed the road. I was scared. A white pickup truck blocked my way. A man came out from there, asked me if I was Mina, and put me in the car where the police chief was. I asked him what he wanted, and he replied, "I promised you that you would be mine, and the day has come." He first grabbed both of my hands, then grabbed my throat and tried to rape me," says Mina Mkoyan in a conversation with jnews.
According to her, she resisted and hit the police chief, to which Lomsadze responded by hitting him:
"At that time, he snatched my bag, which contained money and precious jewellery. He took out money and jewellery and threw the bag at me. He took three rings, a cross and two pendants. He told me that I would regret it. We were not at Aspindza when he got out of the car" - according to the woman, the driver was also in the car when the police chief abused her. According to Mina Mkoyan, Shalva Lomsadze called someone and told them to turn off all the surveillance cameras in the city. Then, he moved towards the host. There is a white cross on the road. It stopped there. After that, I continued my journey together with Teimuraz and Giorgi. We arrived at some place, and it was an unknown place to me. They started calling, asking where I should take them. I always carry small nail scissors in my bag. I took it out without being noticed, hit one of them on the shoulder and jumped out of the car. I managed and called my friend."
Mina Mkoiani answers the question of why they did not contact the General Inspection of the Ministry of Internal Affairs or the Prosecutor's Office before:
"We were silent. We wanted to forget what happened, but we lived in fear. After that incident, Shalva wrote to me and threatened to arrest my husband. We did not respond. For the past three months, she has been meeting my husband in different places, rolling down the car window and cursing. Many people witnessed this and tried to provoke it. He wrote to us from different profiles, and he also wrote to my husband; if he didn't stop, he would have said that he was with me and would have spread the video as well."
"Sakartvelos Ambebi" contacted the police chief of Akhalkalaki, but he refused to comment. The Ministry of Internal Affairs did not respond to the accusation of sexual violence by the police chief.
37-year-old Artur Mkoyan was arrested on August 24 in Akhalkalaki. According to the police, on August 23 of this year, on Davit Aghmashenebeli Street in Akhalkalaki, the driver of an "Opel" car allegedly fired a pistol at the police officers driving in a private vehicle. According to the police, the driver fled in a vehicle after the incident. However, the car's driver was soon identified and determined that Artur Mkoyan, born in 1985, drove the Opel car. According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, during the search conducted by the law enforcement officers in his residence, the mentioned person did not obey the legal request of the police officer, which is why he was arrested under Article 173 of the Code of Administrative Offenses.
The Akhalkalaki District Court recognized Artur Mkoyan as a lawbreaker and sentenced him to 11 days in prison.
The Samtskhe-Javakheti Police Department continues the investigation under the 3rd and 4th parts of Article 236 of the Criminal Code of Georgia, which refers to the illegal purchase, storage and carrying of firearms.
The regional secretary of "The United National Movement", Giorgi Botkoveli, held a briefing on the arrest of Artur Mkoyan. According to him, the police tried to plant a weapon in the Mkoyan family so that "later he would be arrested under the relevant article, but after the breaking news, when television stations got involved in the process, they did not dare to do it." According to Botkoveli, the "political persecution" of Artur Mkoyan and his family began in 2021, when Mkoyan became a member of the "National Movement" party list.
The Ministry of Internal Affairs rejected the accusation of the "National Movement" and, in response to this, released a video, where, according to them, the fact of shooting a gun the citizen Artur Mkoyan is depicted, based on which the investigation was started.
