23:26, 4 March 2019

Prosecutor convicted for concealing murder of schoolboys in Tbilisi

A participant of the action in support of the murdered schoolboys holds a poster with an inscription "Don't kill!" Tbilisi, June 1, 2018. Photo: REUTERS/David Mdzinarishvili

The court has sentenced Mirza Subeliani, a former high-ranking officer of the General Prosecutor's Office (GPO) of Georgia, to a year and one month of deprivation of freedom under the case of a brawl that ended with the death of two schoolboys.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that Subeliani was arrested in June 2018. According to the Georgian Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA), he fully admitted his guilt of not reporting the murder of schoolboys.

The two schoolboys died on December 1, 2017, from stab wounds received in a brawl. On June 1, 2018, two minors were found guilty of committing the murders and sentenced to ten and a half and nine years and nine months in colony, respectively. After that, Merab Morchadze, a former high-ranking official of the Georgia's GPO, confessed to persuading witnesses to change their testimonies in favour of one of the accused, who was his relative. Against the background of protests in Tbilisi, Irakli Shotadze, the GPO head, resigned.

Ekaterina Khutsishvili, Subeliani's advocate, has found the court judgement to be unnecessarily severe.

"His crime is in the category of less serious crimes. I think that this judgement was caused by the high public interest in the case," she said on the air of the "Rustavi-2" TV Company.

Zaza Saralidze, the father of one of the killed schoolboys, is generally satisfied with the judgement.

Let us remind you that in October 2018, the advocate Subeliani reported about his attempt to commit suicide because of the scandal around the publication of audio record of his conversation with an MP about compromising evidence on the "Georgian Dream".

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on March 4, 2019 at 05:35 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.

Author: Inna Kukudjanova

Source: CK correspondent