23:25, 9 June 2018

Official of Georgia's GPO admits guilt of schoolboys' murder

Today, the Georgian Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) has disclosed the inquiry details into the pressure on witnesses of the murder of two schoolboys in Tbilisi; however, protesters have retained their ultimatum on the June 10 protest action.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that starting from May 31, Tbilisi hosts the protest action "Do not Kill!" held in front of the Georgian parliament building. Protestors explain their action by the unfair court's decision in the case on the murder of two schoolchildren. Some of the protesters demand the resignation of the government, while others rejected political demands.

The schoolboys were stabbed in the fight on December 1, 2017, near a school in Tbilisi. One of them died on the way to the hospital; the second one died already after hospitalization. On May 31, it became known that the court had partially dropped the charges from one of the defendants, and softened those moved against the other. The final verdict was pronounced by the court already after the protests began. On June 1, the accused teenagers were sentenced to 10.5 and to 9.75 years in prison, respectively.

A former high-ranking official of the General Prosecutor's Office (GPO) of Georgia, accused of non-reporting a crime after the murder of two schoolboys in Tbilisi, has pleaded guilty, the Georgian MIA has reported today.

The MIA has specified that Merab Morchadze, who was detained on June 8, is accused of bribing two witnesses. According to investigators, he inclined the witnesses to change their testimonies in favour of one of the defendants, who is his relative.

Natiya Mezvrishvili, the Deputy Interior Minister of Georgia, has stated that law enforcers are establishing other people who may be involved in pressuring the participants in the trial.

Zaza Saralidze, the father of one of the killed schoolboys, who has demanded to detain all the perpetrators of the murder and those harbouring the criminals before June 10, said at the same time that he was not going to stop protests, since he finds the detentions incomplete. He recalled that he had demanded the detention of a certain number of people.

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.