Rights defenders point to failures in investigating Machalikashvili's murder
The NGO "Human Rights Monitoring and Training Centre" has criticized the inquiry conducted by the Prosecutor' Office (PO) into the murder of Temirlan Machalikashvili. Investigators should not rely solely on testimonies of a special troop fighter, who shot Temirlan dead. Besides, these testimonies contradict to the examination outcomes, which should have become the basis for suspicions, human rights defenders believe.
The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that Temirlan Machalikashvili's father and other relatives were holding protests in Tbilisi demanding to punish those responsible for his death.
The 19-year-old Temirlan Machalikashvili was mortally wounded in his house during a special operation conducted on December 26, 2017, in the Pankisi Gorge. Law enforcers kept asserting that Machalikashvili tried to throw a grenade at them.
The PO failed to put important questions to special troop fighters; on the contrary, the PO refused to conduct an investigative experiment and "unexpectedly stopped the case," human rights defenders have stated. The NGO has treated the case termination as "unjustified."
A senior official of the State Security Service (SSS) said the SSS had no information that Temirlan Machalikashvili could render armed resistance during the special operation, the above NGO has stated.
Law enforcers shot Temirlan by mistake, his father, Malkhaz Machalikashvili, keeps insisting. "In order to conceal this crime, intelligence officers brought a grenade into my son's bedroom and accused him of resisting them," he has stated.
This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on February 27, 2020 at 08:11 am MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.
Source: CK correspondent