On March 30, the Tbilisi City Court held a regular hearing on the case of Nikoloz Basilashvili, an athlete accused of violence. In this Court hearing, witnesses of the accused were questioned.
Valeri Kirvalidze and Tamar Gamkrelidze are the first people who met Neli [same Neka] Dorokashvili after the incident in May 2020. Kirvalidze is a policeman, Gamkrelidze is an ambulance doctor. Neither of them personally witnessed the violence, both of them know about the incident from Dorokashvili himself.
However, both the policeman and the ambulance doctor say that Dorokashvili was crying and there was redness on his arm.
Nikoloz Basilashvili himself was present at the remote. The court allowed him to question several times, however, he had no questions for the witnesses.
Where did the witnesses meet Dorokashvili?
According to the witnesses, Dorokashvili called the police andt he ambulance on Sarajishvili Avenue, the so-called Craftsmen called to the town settlement. She was there with her son and, as the woman herself said, she was physically abused by her ex-husband and verbally abused by her ex-father-in-law.
During the several-hour interrogation, witnesses recalled many important details, including quoting Dorokashvili as saying that the woman recalled several incidents of past violence from her ex-husband.
What does the policeman say?
Valeri Kirvalidze met with Neli Dorokashvili in May 2020, after calling her about the alleged fact of domestic violence. He and several police officers arrived at the scene when Dorokashvili and his young son were sitting in an ambulance with doctors.
Policeman recalls from Neli Dorokashvili:
“When we inquired about the fact of domestic violence, he explained that on May 21, 2020, his ex-wife, Nikoloz Basilashvili, had a day to see the child, who brought the child. However, the child himself did not want to go to the father and the mother, Neli Dorokashvili, agreed to follow the child and then visit him to take – on this condition she followed the child And was taken by her ex-husband, Nikoloz Basilashvili, to his parent’s house, in the Avchala area.
When the mother (Neli Dorokashvili) visited the address to pick up the child, the father, Nikoloz Basilashvili, put the child in the car and tried to go somewhere else, or which the mother was against. when the child started crying, Mrs. Neli Dorokashvili opened the car door, and in the process of closing this door, she also stepped into the car door, however, as she explained, the child was already in panic and was crying. When Dorokashvili pulled the child out of the car, he went to the house to supply water to the child, as the child was in a state of stress.
Policeman Kirvalidze recalls that Dorokashvili asked a passing car for help and took her to the area where she was finally met by ambulance and police crews.
When asked by the prosecution what emotional and physical condition Neli Dorokashvili was in, the policeman Policeman Kirvalidze recalls that Dorokashvili asked a passing car for help and took her to the area where she was finally met by ambulance and police crews.
When asked by the prosecution what emotional and physical condition Neli Dorokashvili was in, the policeman recalled that she was crying and”also the child… was not crying at that moment, but seemed to be crying and scared.”
“There were scratches and redness on the arm of his right hand,” said the policeman, adding that Dorokashvili herself said that she received these injuries after her ex-husband grabbed her, in her arms and shook.
The policeman says that according to Dorokashvili, such an action was not the first time of her ex-husband, and it was the first time of her father-in-law. The policeman also adds that the conversation with Neli Dorokashvili was fully recorded by the camera of the police.
Nikoloz Basilashvili’s lawyers also asked questions to the police officer. The police officer answered only part, that he did not remember these details. For example, he did not remember whether Neli Dorokashvili wore sunglasses and, consequently, did not see tears in his eyes – only on his cheeks and nose. Also, the police officer could not answer who Dorokashvili was talking to on the phone.
He also said that Dorokashvili’s son drank water, for which he was taken to a shop across the street. At the end of the defense party’s questions, he once again stated that he had not witnessed the violence directly and that he knew about it from Dorokashvili’s storyrecalled that she was crying and”also the child… was not crying at that moment, but seemed to be crying and scared.”
“There were scratches and redness on the arm of his right hand,” said the policeman, adding that Dorokashvili herself said that she received these injuries after her ex-husband grabbed her, in her arms and shook.
The policeman says that according to Dorokashvili, such an action was not the first time of her ex-husband, and it was the first time of her father-in-law. The policeman also adds that the conversation with Neli Dorokashvili was fully recorded by the camera of the police.
Nikoloz Basilashvili’s lawyers also asked questions to the police officer. The police officer answered only part, that he did not remember these details. For example, he did not remember whether Neli Dorokashvili wore sunglasses and, consequently, did not see tears in his eyes – only on his cheeks and nose. Also, the police officer could not answer who Dorokashvili was talking to on the phone.
He also said that Dorokashvili’s son drank water, for which he was taken to a shop across the street. At the end of the defense party’s questions, he once again stated that he had not witnessed the violence directly and that he knew about it from Dorokashvili’s story.
What does the ambulance doctor remember?
Tamar Gamkrelidze, a doctor of the ambulance brigade, talked to Neli Dorokashvili together with other doctors that night. It was she who drafted the medical protocol, which Dorokashvili signed, according to which she also refused to be hospitalized.
The nurse recalls that the ambulance arrived just minutes before the police arrived. Accordingly, Dorokashvili told the police and the ambulance about the incident almost the same time.
On May 21, Tamar Gamkrelidze was on duty, she is the head of the ambulance brigade.
“I do not remember the exact time, it was noon, the call came, there was a young woman in the street with a child and she was crying. We immediately left for Avchala, near the stadium. Arriving at the address, we met a woman at a street stop, with a child about 4-5 years old who was very nervous, crying hysterically.
We were on the street and there was noise, so we got the patient in our car asked her why she was so nervous and why she was crying. She began to narrate that there was a family conflict. That she was divorced from her husband, for about 1 year, so I remember. “She explained that her husband was a famous person, but neither she nor we focused on who that person was,” the doctor recalled.
Like a police officer, the doctor tells almost the same story of how Dorokashvili came to pick up the child and how the violence happened, Dorokashvili said.”The patrol also came soon and we started listening together. He cried a lot, the whole period was very irritated, cried non-stop. The child did not cry, but he seems scared.
We tried to calm her down as much as it possible. We gave him a light soothing, she had a small scratch and redness on her arm, and she was wearing a short-sleeved T-shirt.
The doctor recalls that Dorokashvili herself did not complain of pain, it was more emotional stress. According to the same story, Dorokashvili was called by her mother while she was sitting in the ambulance, who calmed the woman down as much as possible.
The doctor explained that the excoriation was a light injury to the skin, which in this case was observed on the woman’s right inner arm.
Assessments of the parties
After the March 30 Court hearing, the process was assessed by both the prosecutor and Nikoloz Basilashvili’s lawyers.
The prosecutor in the case said he would not discuss the content of the testimony.
As for Basilashvili’s side, one of his lawyers, Teona Gvazava, says that the interviewed witnesses do not explicitly point to the violence committed by Basilashvili, as no one has witnessed this fact.
The next hearing was scheduled by Judge Khatuna Kharchilava on April 19, at 14:00.Against the background of a successful sports career,Nikoloz Basilashvili was arrested in May 2020 on the basis of domestic violence, but was released on 100,000 GEL bail.
The tennis player was charged with physical violence against his ex-wife Neka (Neli)Dorokashvili in the presence of a minor child. According to Dorokashvili, Basilashvili systematically abused him, which Basilashvili’s family denies.
