Georgian officials mark 6 years since murder of Georgian citizen Giga Otkhozoria by occupation forces

Georgian authorities on Thursday marked six years since the brutal  murder of Georgian citizen Giga Otkhozoria by occupation forces across the administrative boundary over the Russian-occupied Abkhazia region in the country’s west.

Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili said his Government was doing its “utmost” to ensure justice in the case, in which the perpetrator is known but has not faced justice by authorities in the occupied region. 

Photo: Government's Administration.

We are using all possible legal and diplomatic tools to hold the perpetrators accountable with full force of law,” Garibashvili said on the anniversary of the incident.

The head of the Georgian Government also noted the country would “never tolerate the criminal occupation” dividing its citizens, saying “we will do everything we can to end it peacefully".

Otkhozoria was attempting to bring food products across a checkpoint operated by occupation forces, and into the Abkhazian territory, for a funeral ceremony for his late aunt on May 19, 2016, when de facto border guards demanded a payment in exchange for allowing him to bring the products across the boundary, which caused a dispute.

Otkhozoria was walking back across the line and to Georgian-controlled territory when he was shot six times by guard Rashid Kanjiogli from outside the checkpoint facility.

Although the offender was identified and sentenced by Zugdidi City Court in the Georgian-controlled territory to 14 years in prison, the de facto authorities in the occupied Abkhazia region have refused to enact the punishment.

Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili awarded the family of Otkhozoria with the Medal for Civil Commitment in January 2019.