President of the Republic of Abkhazia

 

Newsfeed

23.06.2017


On June 23, President of the Republic of Abkhazia Raul Khadzhimba had a meeting with the members of the Public Chamber.

At the meeting, questions related to the improvement of the crime situation in the republic were discussed. Secretary of the Public Chamber Natella Akaba remarked that in this issue, cooperation between law enforcement agencies, social and veteran organisations, journalists and human rights activists is important.

“It is important to unite the forces of law enforcement agencies and society to fight crime”, - she said.

Member of the Public Chamber Sokrat Djindjolia stressed that he does not support the law enforcement system reform. In his view, the existing laws should be applied fully, in particular, the principle of the inevitability of punishment.

The Members of the Public Chamber prepared an Address to the Head of State to create public councils under the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Prosecutor General’s Office. 

Prosecutor General Zurab Achba spoke to the participants of the meeting about the investigation of resonant crimes which took place recently. He also said that the Office is always ready to share the information with the mass media representatives of the republic.

Deputy Minister for Internal Affairs Raul Zukhba remarked that law enforcement agencies do everything to solve the crimes. He supported the idea of cooperation between law enforcement agencies and the public. He stressed that at different stages of crime investigation, such help is often necessary.

Member of Parliament Batal Tabagua also supported the idea of creating public councils. He said that without support from the public, the Ministry of Internal Affairs cannot solve all the tasks assigned to it. He also remarked that it is necessary to improve the prestige of law enforcement agencies and to create conditions for their strengthening.

The President commented on the suggestions of the meeting’s participants on the improvement of the crime situation:

“These are problems that affect all of us, and we should start solving these problems together.

We have to work together, and we spoke about this during previous meetings. The idea to create public councils was my initiative. It will remain only an idea if we do not start to form these councils. They should be created not only under the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Prosecutor General’s Office, but in all spheres of governmental activity.

No one should be intimated. The first step should be the following. As far as I can see, the Djgamazia family is here. The Public Chamber should start supervising the investigation in the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Prosecutor General’s Office. No one creates obstacles for this.

There is no state that succeeded in eradicating crime completely. The task of every government is to minimise it, to create conditions for those who work in law enforcement to receive support from the state. The task of the Head of State and the society as a whole is to prevent the expansion of the influence of crime.

The prevention of crime is also an important task of the state. Was has been done to achieve it? Unfortunately, not much. The concept of crime prevention does not exist in our state.

The control of society over the law enforcement system is an important pre-condition to overcome this situation. We have discussed this with you, and this is stipulated in many documents.

Equipping law enforcement agencies is also important. Unfortunately, not a lot has been done for the law enforcement agencies to work fully. There are no technical facilities that we would like to have. Yet, we pursue this aim, when we speak about bilateral cooperation with Russia. Why do some people think that by creating a single Information coordination centre with Russia, we would lose our sovereignty? This is only an attempt to avoid legal measures. In the post-Soviet space, there are examples of such structures. They have been created in a number of post-Soviet states, and the invited specialists left home after having performed their duties. Moreover, the locals were left with equipment and new opportunities.

Today we also spoke about expertise. Every expert analysis needs big financial resources. What is wrong with the fact that these conditions will be created for us? Then, the operational impact on evidentiary materials will be completely different from today.

Speaking about prisons, in the near future, we will have meetings with the leadership of the Security Council of the Russian Federation and the Ministry of Internal Affairs. We already discussed this question with the Ministry of Justice. I think that a prison for 500 people should be enough for Abkhazia. It would be the kind of prison, where people not only sit, but also work.

Speaking about common coordination work, I would disagree with you that such work is not being done. This work is done, but not as it should. There is a corresponding body under the Prosecutor General’s Office, which is tasked with coordinating the work of all law enforcement agencies. Some time ago, it started working again at my request.

There is also a draft bill on fighting organised crime. The draft that was presented to us is far from our current situation. Today it is at the Ministry of Internal Affairs, there is a coordination process with other agencies. I hope that it will be sent to the Parliament in the near future.

We also discussed the fact that we have been overwhelmed by the problem of drug trafficking. The sanctions that exist today are not adequate to deal with what is happening. If we look at the transactions through the QIWI Wallet system, hundreds of millions of rubles leave our territory. Concerning the distributors and organisers, a decision should be reached to introduce life imprisonment. There is simply no other way out.

Speaking about weapons, all law enforcement agencies are instructed not to carry out this work selectively. This work should be impartial. No one has the right, including the members of Parliament and the President, to carry arms without permission.

Today, everyone carries arms. And they used to before. This is why there were assassination attempts against the President and all other resonant events of the past.

We cannot agree with this situation.

All these resonant crimes that took place should be always remembered by the President and the public”.



Возврат к списку

 
 
 
 
© 2015 Administration of the President of the Republic of Abkhazia, Sukhum, Naberezhnaya Makhadjirov, 32, phone.: +7 840 226 46 31, fax: +7 840 226 46 31
mail: info@presidentofabkhazia.org