‘Partially restored justice,’-court names killer of Saralidze in the notorious case of murdered minors
By Gvantsa Gabekhadze
Tuesday, June 4
Unlike Tbilisi City Court in 2018, the Court of Appeals managed to name one individual who killed 16-year-old David Saralidze in a high-profile murder case of two minors in 2017, the case which led to large-scale street rallies and the resignation of Georgian chief prosecutor in 2018.
The Court of Appeals ruled on Monday that G.J., who was also a minor that time, killed Saralidze, with the help of “still unidentified individuals,” in December 2017 in central Tbilisi, during the brawl of schoolchildren, leaving Saralidze with multiple injuries in his back [which later caused his death] and Levan Dadunashvili murdered at the scene.
The Court of Appeals has sent both detainees to 11 years and three months in prison, as they were minors at the time of the incident, the verdict which might appeal to the Supreme Court of Georgia.
Two minors, G.B., and G.J. were detained for the case in 2017.
The controversial verdict in 2018 by Tbilisi City Court said that G.B. killed Dadunashvili and G.J. attempted Saralidze’s murder, failing to say who killed the latter.
The verdict led to street rallies to support Zaza Saralidze, father of David Saralidze, “find offenders and hold them accountable.”
Zaza Saralidze stated that top officials of the Georgian Chief Prosecutor’s Office “concealed details and hid several of the offenders” of the case.
Saralidze said that former official of the Georgian Chief Prosecutor’s Office Mirza Subeliani was one of them.
Controversies around the case push Chief Prosecutor Irakli Shotadze quit his post last year.
Subeliani was also detained and sent to one-year in prison for “not reporting a crime,“ as the case involved his relatives.
A minor, Mikheil Kalandia, who is Subeliani’s relative, is frequently cited as a possible offender by Saralidze, “who still walks free.”
Saralidze, said on Monday after the verdict was announced that “justice has been partially restored.”
He vowed the “fight to the end” to reveal and punish all those involved in the incident.
Saralidze’s lawyer stated that they are “now waiting for the following steps from the Chief Prosecutor’s Office.”
G.J.’s lawyer said that other individuals [who acted with G.J. during the incident] must be revealed.
He said that one of such individuals have already been identified, but he had no right to speak about it.
Sergi Kapanadze, a member of the European Georgia opposition party, who chaired a parliament’s fact-finding commission regarding the case, stated that the court verdict confirmed flaws in the investigation and the conclusion of the commission that several offenders still walk free.
