The LAS Kvemo Kartli Bureau lawyer, Archil Tsaguria, defended interests of R.M. and R.O. who were accused of attempt of stealing committed by a prior conspiracy of a group that might have caused a substantial damage.
According to the presented charge, R.O. who worked as a power shovel driver in the Ministry of Defense, together with R.M. attempted to secretly take possession of 240 liters of fuel the cost of which was 290 GEL. While committing the action, the police noticed arrested both of them.
R.O. partially admitted to committing the offense, but R.M. asserted that, he did not know that he was an accomplice of the crime. He just helped R.O. to carry his own fuel for what he would receive some amount of it. According to R.M., he did not have any doubt that it was an attempt of the crime because the excavator was without military numbers. He learned about the crime after the policemen arrested R.O. who was on the excavator.
At the first court session, the prosecution party demanded imprisonment for both defendants as a restrictive measure. However, the defense party did not agree on that. As a result, the court shared the position of the lawyer and sentenced the defendants to payment of bail with provision of imprisonment.
At the pre-trial, the criminal prosecution against R.M. was suspended on the basis of demand of the defense party. The prosecutor appealed this and the decision of Rustavi City Court regarding suspension of the criminal prosecution against R.M. was annulled.
The defense party thought that the evidences presented by the prosecution were not sufficient to render the verdict of not guilty. That’s why, in his closing speech, the lawyer Archil Tsaguria demanded acquittal for R.M. and to remove the blame from R.O. envisaged by paragraph 1 of part 3 of article 177 of the Criminal Procedure Code of Georgia and use conditional sentence for him.
Finally, Rustavi City Court shared the position of the LAS lawyer, found R.M. not guilty and rendered 3 years of conditional sentence for R.O.