Family of Saparov, the killed human rights activist slams Court for excluding ethnic intolerance motive
By Tea Mariamidze
Friday, June 28
Family of the human rights activist Vitaly Saparov, who was killed in the street on September 30 in Tbilisi, does not agree with the decision of the Tbilisi City Court about excluding the ethnic intolerance motive.
On Thursday, Judge Shorena Guntsadze found two men Avtandil Kandelakishvili and Giorgi Sokhadze, accused of killing Saparov, guilty in premeditated group murder but excluded the motive of ethnic intolerance from the aggravating circumstances. They were both sentenced to 15 years in prison. The term of imprisonment started in September 2018.
The family of the victim says the murder was committed on xenophobic grounds as Saparov was a Jew. They assure he was not involved in any conflict with the detained men.
Family lawyer, Eka Kobesashvili claims the eyewitnesses said the young man was killed only because he was a Jew.
“Vitaly did not interfere in the fight, and the aggression against him only started after the detained men learned he was a Jew and worked in a non-governmental organization. The Judge’s decision is unacceptable for us,” she said.
The court decision was not shared by the Prosecutor’s Office of Georgia (POG) either. The POG says the Tbilisi City Court excluded subparagraph “d” of paragraph 2, Article 109 (Premeditated murder due to national intolerance) but Article 109 (2) (e) (intentional murder in aggravating circumstances) the two men were found guilty and sentenced to 15-15 years of imprisonment.
“The Prosecutor’s Office of Georgia will appeal the decision in the part of the subsection “d” of the second part of the article 109 and demand aggravating the sentence of the accused men,” the statement reads.
The POG reports that on September 30, 2018, at around 4:30 pm, in the vicinity of Aleksandre Dumas Street in Tbilisi, the detained men inflicted injuries to Vitaly Saparov for killing him on the grounds of retaliation.
The agency said the men injured the activist with the knife and the cassette and when the injured man fell, they left him to die. Saparov passed away before he was taken to the hospital.
Both accused men are going to appeal the decision in a higher instance. Giorgi Sokhadze claims he is innocent and Avtandil Kandelakishvili says that this was not a group intentional murder.
Vitaly Saparov was killed at the age of 25. For several years he was actively involved in teenagers’ tolerance camps and other projects against racism, xenophobia, and discrimination.
He was working for the NGO Tolerance and Diversity Institute (TDI).
