E/CN.4/2004/63/Add.1 page 15 3. The Mkalavishvili case 69. The (several sets of) proceedings currently pending against the defrocked Georgian Orthodox priest, Basil Mkalavishvili, who has been charged with a series of attacks on religious minorities, say much about the current situation as regards freedom of religion or belief in Georgia. 70. Of the hundred or so attacks on Jehovah’s Witnesses and other religious minorities since October 1999, most have been led by Basil Mkalavishvili. Since October 1999, Mkalavishvili has openly proclaimed that he has been conducting a war against faiths he regards as detrimental to Georgia. He is quite frank about his views and intentions, even when his intentions are violent, and makes no secret of his alleged connections with the forces of law and order. 71. On 16 March 2001, the Prosecutor General of Georgia ordered an inquiry into allegations of religious violence perpetrated by Basil Mkalavishvili and his sympathizers. Charges were laid against Mkalavishvili and Petre Ivanidze, a close associate, on 3 September 2002. 72. Despite these charges Basil Mkalavishvili is said to have announced at a demonstration in T’bilisi on 24 September 2001, the day after an attack on a Pentecostal church in the district of Gldani, that he was about to begin a fresh campaign against non-Orthodox religious groups in Georgia. On 28 September 2001, he and his sympathizers blocked the motorway in T’bilisi to identify cars and buses transporting Jehovah’s Witnesses to a meeting in the southern town of Marneuli. On 23 December 2001, he and a hundred or so sympathizers are also said to have attacked members of the Pentecostalist Word of Life Church. 73. A criminal trial against Basil Mkalavishvili and Petre Ivanidze finally began with a hearing in the Didube-Shugurethi district court in T’bilisi on 25 January 2002, but it was immediately adjourned. After the hearing, Mkalavishvili and his sympathizers reportedly went to the Stereo One independent television studio and told officials there to stop the broadcast of a daily programme from a Protestant church. 74. On 3 February 2002, Mkalavishvili and over a hundred supporters entered a warehouse in T’bilisi, carrying out and burning several thousand bibles belonging to the Baptist community and the United Bible Society (see above). This attack was criticized in a statement by the Patriarch and a letter sent to the President of Georgia by most of the country’s religious minorities. 75. On 1 April 2002, a T’bilisi district court turned down a request by the city prosecutor to have Basil Mkalavishvili taken into pre-trial detention. 76. On 20 May 2002, Mkalavishvili and his supporters demonstrated in front of the Embassy of the United States of America to T’bilisi after 15 members of the United States Congress sent a letter to the Georgian President asking him to take concrete action to ensure the safety of all Georgians without distinction as to their religion. 77. The trial resumed on 25 October 2002 but was again adjourned sine die on 22 December 2002.