PHR: Court rejects request to stop demolition of house in Africa settlement of Tbilisi
By Nika Gamtsemlidze
Monday, December 21
Ana Arganashvili, a spokeswoman for the Partnership for Human Rights (PHR), said the court had not granted their request to stop the demolition of a house in the ‘Africa’ settlement of Tbilisi.
Ana Arganashvili says the organization will appeal the court's decision. A few days ago, Arganashvili posted a photo of Gigi, an 8-year-old boy living in this house, on Facebook and wrote that it was planned to demolish the boy's family house.
“The reasoning of the court is very sad and technical when the safety of the child and the survival of his home is at stake. For me, the saddest part is that we told this kid that the court would listen to him wholeheartedly. We will appeal the decision of the court, the kid should not lose the hope of justice,” wrote Arganashvili on Facebook.
The Partnership for Human Rights appealed to the court on December 18 to maintain several square flats built in the ‘Africa’ settlement of Tbilisi for an 8-year-old boy, his parents with disabilities and a 79-year-old grandfather.
The IDP Agency has yesterday released a special statement regarding the housing of the Changelia family, currently living in the 'Africa' settlement in Tbilisi. The Agency has noted that the family is registered in Zugdidi, village Rukhi. According to the agency, the family has received a three-room apartment in a newly built building on Baramia Street in Zugdidi.
Ana Arganashvili has commented about this with Radio Liberty, saying that the family has been waiting for the apartment in December, but they have not yet received the keys to the apartment.
“They know that the transfer process was ongoing, but it happened so that they still do not have the keys of the house. All they know is that they built a house and now it is being demolished,” said Arganashvili and added that 4-5 months ago, when they started building the house, they did not have an apartment.
According to Arganashvili, the family has two demands: if the state intends to demolish the apartment, they want to receive the money that they spent on building the house. The family has taken a special pension loan, which they spent on building the house in 'Africa' settlement. The second demand is that their home should not be demolished until they receive the keys of the Zugdidi apartment.
According to PHR, the family was given until December 20 to leave the house. On the morning of December 20, activists and citizens gathered near the house of 8-year-old Gigi Changelia to prevent the relevant agency from demolishing the house. Surprisingly, the bulldozers haven’t yet appeared.
