The case of Israeli entrepreneurs Rony Fux and Zeev Frenkell may have a serious impact on economic relations between Israel and Georgia, as well planting a seed of mistrust towards the latter within the international business community. Last week Israeli mass media launched a new wave of reports of abuse of Israeli businessmen Rony Fux and Zeev Frenkell, imprisoned in Georgia, and demanded the Foreign Ministry of Israel to intervene and protect Israeli citizens.
For example, Rony Fux in his letter to his lawyer pointed out that the Georgian prison authorities refused to give him his dietary food that he needs as a diabetic, as well as reducing the number of permitted walks and phone calls. In addition, prison guards habitually broke into his cell at night and searched it, at as well as abusing the prisoner. Once they conducted several searches in one hour and a guard planted cocaine in Fux’s pocket. Another time they spilled ‘Fanta’ over his mattress.
Zeev Frenkell is being subjected to similar abuse in another prison. According to the businessmen and their lawyers the, Georgian authorities want to break the will of the prisoners and make them confess to a crime they never committed, thus preventing them from appealing to the European Court.
In 1992, when Georgia severed a contract on pipeline construction with the Israeli ‘Tramex’ company, the international court of arbitration made Georgia pay 96 million dollars in compensation to the owner of the company, Rony Fux, and his assistant, Zeev Frenkell. Soon after that the two businessmen were arrested in Tbilisi and were charged with attempted bribery: allegedly, they tried to offer 7 million dollars to the Georgian Deputy Finance Minister so that he would prevent his superiors from appealing against the court’s decision.
On April 1, the Tbilisi Court sentenced Fux to seven and Frenkell to six years in prison. In addition, Frenkell had to pay a 59,000 dollar fine and Fux – 295,000. The businessmen still insist that they didn’t try to bribe anyone and that the Georgian authorities launched the process only to avoid paying the penalty.
This case caused great damage to Israeli-Georgian relations. After Tbilisi ignored the official protests of Israel and Turkey (the latter had to intervene, as Fux is also a honorary consul of Turkey in Israel), the head of the Industrialist Association of Israel issued a warning to all Israeli entrepreneurs not to visit Georgia or have any business relations with it.
Israel also requested that the visits of the Georgian Parliamentary speaker and the Economy Minister to Israel would be cancelled.
The reports on abuse of the Israeli businessmen in Georgian prisons may ultimately scare away Israeli owners of large-scale enterprises from investing in Georgia.
However, as far as small and medium-sized enterprises are concerned, the connections between the two countries in this field seem to be improving, and this progress is well illustrated by the abundance of Georgian wines, mineral water and sauces in Israeli supermarkets.
Peter Lukinson, Israel, exclusively to VK.
