Lawyer of US Family Murder Suspect Plans to Meet Victims’ Relatives
By Tea Mariamidze
Tuesday, September 18
Aleksandre Kobaidze, who protects the interests of the 19-year-old shepherd Malkhaz Kobauri, accused of the murder of the American Smith Family in mountainous Georgia in early July, says he is going to meet the relatives of the US family and ask them questions.
Kobaidze does not exclude that he will have to go to America to see the Smith's family members and relatives. The lawyer believes that one of the important witnesses of the case may be the family members of the Smiths.
"I would like to question the brother and family members of the murdered people and maybe I will go to go to America for this. I would like to get information from the first source and ask them whom did the Smiths have communication with,” the lawyer said.
Kobaidze explains that the expertise, which will assess if the suspect is able to have a sexual act in general, will be carried out in the nearest days.
Mtskheta District Court in eastern Georgia has left Malkhaz Kobauri in pre-trial detention, who is accused of the murder of Ryan and Lora Smith and their 4-year-old son Caleb.
The court did not meet the motion of Kobauri’s lawyer and said that if released Kobauri could go into hiding or make an influence on witnesses.
The lawyer and the family say that the court’s verdict is unfair as “it is impossible” that the 19-year-old man to kill Ryan Smith, then a little boy and then to run after Lora Smith for half a kilometer, rape her and kill.
The lawyer confirms that Kobauri’s genetic profile was found “on Lora Smith’s body,” but he claims that Kobauri is virgin, and could not have raped the woman. He says his client is innocent and he will prove it.
