[Excerpt from an investigative documentary “Chelovek i Zakon” (“Man and Law”) examining the allegations and judicial decisions in the case surrounding the August 29^th, 1995 incident in which detainees were tortured and forced to give false statements.]

VO: In 1995, Guram Papukashvili was a commander of one of the units of “Alpha”.  He was arrested on September 17, three weeks after the terrorist attack, and accused him of an attempt on the Head of State. The confession was literally beaten out of him – strictly by schedule; once every two days - a day for beating, a day for rest and then back to the torture chamber.

Guram Papukashvili: they used electric shock…Forgive me for saying this, I am after all a man, but I did not have natural holes on my body that I was not bleeding from. Basically, anything they could do to a man who had been tortured…they were just sure that we would be sentenced to death by firing squad*. For 7 months I was not allowed to bathe or cut nails or hair. The only thing they would tell me was, they wanted me to name Igor Giorgadze as the organizer of this whole tragedy. For me, it was easier to die than to say a libelous thing about a person.

VO: The investigation pinned the role of an explosives expert to Guram – alleging he planted that very mine and then passed it on to other conspirators.

Guram Papukashvili: I was ready to “confess” any thing just to stop the beatings. I could not withstand the torture anymore. I had agreed to everything. The main thing that finally pushed me over the edge was, they had this practice…they simply “lowered” [raped] people. You understand what that is, right? When there were literally seconds left until that moment –I agreed, I told them, ‘I will sign whatever you tell me’.

"I, Papukashvili Guram, captain of the State Security and a member of the special unit" Alpha ", in mid-July of this year, was summoned by my commander Gela Papuashvili and told that on the orders of the “Comandor”, that’s how we referred to the head of the State Security Igor Giorgadze, I should go to his deputy, Batiashvili, and execute his orders. According to the received orders I was to put a mine on a vehicle, "Niva", with explosives MON-50 and an explosive material “Plastid".

VO: Guram had only one hope – the court -  but no one wanted to listen to him there.

Guram Papukashvili: During the trial, one of the detainees who was being tried, raised the fact that such a device, which was named by the investigation, this type of a remote control had been tested on their base ( the “Omega” [special unit] base) the then head of the personal security, Minister of Internal Affairs, Shota Kviraia. But who believed it? No one.

*At the time of Guram's arrest Georgia had capital punishment.