Prosecutor’s Office rejects lawyer claims in incident involving taxi driver’s alleged mistreatment of passengers

The Office of Prosecutor General on Friday accused lawyer Irakli Chomakhashvili of “spreading fake information” with claims around an incident that saw a taxi driver represented by him charged with mistreatment of Lithuanian and Russian tourists in April.

Chomakhashvili told the press on Friday his client Amiran Bokuchava, the driver in question who has been denied bail in the case, had rightfully refused service to the two visitors in the country after they had demanded he speak Russian and protested his playing of Ukrainian songs in the car. 

Bokuchava was supposed to drive the tourists from Tbilisi International Airport to a hotel in the capital, but instead took them in a different direction following a disagreement with the passengers.

Chomakhashvili claimed the incident had resulted in the driver refusing to take the two to the hotel, instead leaving them near Gombori pass in Georgia’s east, dozens of kilometres from their destination. The lawyer claimed the jury of Rustavi District Court, of the city near Tbilisi, had found his client innocent and told the media “it is not a crime to switch on Ukrainian songs to Russians and defend national interests”.

Dismissing the claims, the Prosecutor’s Office said Bokuchava was facing charges for illegally depriving the freedom of his passengers, not for switching on Ukrainian songs, noting he had been denied bail by the Rustavi court on April 13.

Providing other details, the state body said the driver had taken the two foreign citizens from Tbilisi International Airport on April 11 and demanded ₾195 ($69) instead of  ₾23 ($8) - the price indicated by the ride-hailing application - after arriving at the destination hotel.

Offended by the price, the foreign citizens demanded the driver take them to a nearby police station to solve the dispute. However, the driver instead took them to a deserted location in the Kakheti region of eastern Georgia and demanded ₾500 ($175) in return for taking them back”, the Prosecutor's Office said.

The Office also said the passengers had eventually managed to escape by jumping from the car when the driver had to slow down on a section of the road, suffering injuries as a result. It also added Bokuchava had pushed their luggage out of the vehicle before going on a run from the area, and noted a Georgian friend of one of the tourists had reported the incident to police after the Lithuanian visitor told them about the incident.