Police detain key witness of Khorava Street case
By Tea Mariamidze
Wednesday, June 5
A key witness of a high-profile Khorava Street case, M.K, was arrested with the charges of a group murder of a teen Davit Saralidze in December 2017, under aggravated circumstances.
The information was released by the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) of Georgia on June 4.
On December 1, 2017, the incident took place in central Tbilisi, where two teenagers, Davit Saralidze and Levan Dadunashvili, were stabbed to death in a school brawl.
On May 31, 2018, Tbilisi City Court charged two minors: one for the premeditated murder of Dadunashvili and the second for the attempted murder of Saralidze; however, the court could not say who had killed Saralidze, which sparked mass protests in the capital.
Unlike Tbilisi City Court, on June 3, 2019, the Court of Appeals managed to name one individual who killed 16-year-old David Saralidze - G.J. who was a minor that time when Saralidze was killed.
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 following day of the Appeals Court decision, MIA said they arrested M.K. for participating in the brutal crime.
The Parliamentary Commission, leading the probe into investigation of the Khorava street case, requested that the Prosecutor’s Office launched the criminal persecution against M.K.
In addition, M.K. is the relative of Mirza Subeliani, a former employee of the Prosecutor’s Office, who was found guilty of concealing the mentioned crime and sentenced him to one year and a month in jail. He will leave prison in July.
Vladimer Bortsvadze, Deputy Interior Minister of Georgia, said at a briefing on Tuesday that M.K, part of the school brawl, was on the charges of group murder of Davit Saralidze under aggravated circumstances.
“The Ministry of Internal Affairs has been actively working in the direction of M.K.’s possible participation in the murder. After the verdict of the first instance court, we obtained evidence of M.K.’s partaking into group murder,” he said.
Father of Davit Saralidze, Zaza Saralidze said the case involves more individuals, adding he continues to fight for the justice.
“The trial is ahead. Let's see how the Prosecutor's Office will prove the charges raised against M.K.,” he said, adding there also remain questions why it took so long to the investigation to charge Kalandia.
The non-governmental organizations raised similar questions.
Mikheil Benidze, Chairman of the NGO International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy (ISFED) says although M.K. was detained, it was followed to some more questions.
“The fact that the most important persons involved in this murder have been arrested and the steps taken in this direction are good. But there are more questions – Why was the investigation so prolonged and who is responsible for that?”.
President's Spokesperson Khatia Moistsrapishvili said at the briefing on Tuesday that the President of Georgia thinks that "justice is of utmost importance."
“The President considers families must have answers to all their questions, and there should not be any doubt regarding injustice. Let’s wait for further processes. The main thing is the restoration of justice – this is the position of the President of Georgia,” she said.
M.K.'s family says his detention is a “politically motivated” step. The detainee’s father T.K. claims if his son was guilty, he should have been detained shortly after the crime.
“I do not know for whom is this arrest favorable, but my son is innocent. Even Zaza Saralidze knows it,” he said.
