With his musical training from Tbilisi Conservatory, Kostava once held the post of Professor of Musicology at the Polytechnical Institute of Music in Tbilisi. But he has a history of activism dating back to a student demonstration in support of the 1956 Hungarian uprising, and Kostava was arrested in 1972 for his political activities. Upon his release a year later, he went on to help organize the Georgian Initiative Group for the Defense of Human Rights in 1974 and in 1976 with Zviad Gams akhurdia, the Georgian Herald, a samizdat journal with a focus on human rights issues. He was particularly interested in the struggle of the Meskhetians to return from Central Asia to their original homeland in southern Georgia. Kostava'a many activities, including his role as founding member of the Georgian Helsinki Group, led to his arrest in April of 1977 and a period at Moscow's Serbsky Institute for Forensic Psychiatry to undergo examination. He was then kept under detention in Tbilisi until his trial. On May On May 18, 1978, he was sentenced to 3 years in strict regimen camp and 2 years of internal exile for "anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda," Article 71 of the Georgian SSR Criminal Code. Kostava is in poor health; he never fully recovered from a serious auto accident prior to his arrest and has been hospitalized frequently while in camp. PAILODZE, Valentina Home address: Georgian S.S.R. 3 massiv, 8 kvartal Exile address: Kazakh S.S.R. Aktubinsk oblast This well-known religious activist studied three years at a music conservatory and worked as the choir director at Aion Cathedral. For her religious activism, in June of 1974, she was sentenced to 18 months in camp under Article 206-1 of the Georgian Criminal Code. She was accused of distributing religious propaganda and then attacked in the Georgian press as a "parasite" and "political agitator. After Pailodze joined the Helsinki Group, she and her family were constantly harassed by the KGB, culminating in her arrest on November 6, 1977, allegedly for stealing a small amount of money out of another person's handbag while she was riding on a bus. The case was delayed several times and Pailodze was finally sentenced in October of 1978. of 1978. The criminal article was dropped and she received 1 year in camp and 2 years of internal exile for "slandering the Soviet State." Because Pailodze was held in pretrial detention for a year, she went immediately into exile. Rtskhiladze served as the Director of the Department for the Protection of Historical Monuments in the Georgian Ministry of Culture until his fight for the preservation of an ancient monastery cost him his job on March 9, 1977. A member of the Georgian Initiative Group for the Defense of Human Rights, Rtskhiladze was active in the sphere of cultural preservation and a fervent supporter of the Meskhetians in their struggle to return to their rightful homeland in southern Georgia. These activities, in conjunction with his role in the Georgian Group and his samizdat activities, resulted in his arrest on April 7, 1977. Though he was released after 4 days due to a recent heart attack, he was issued a warning to stay within Tbilisi city limits. Rtskhiladze was arrested again on January 25, 1978. On September 7, 1978, he was sentenced to two years of internal exile under Article 71 of the Georgian Criminal Code, "anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda." He has reportedly returned home upon completion of his sentence. |