Court sentences ex-police officials to 9-12 years in prison

Today Tbilisi City Court sentenced two former top police officials of the United National Movement government to 9-12 years behind bars for exceeding official powers, murder and fabricating evidence in a notorious case that claimed three lives in 2006.

The Court stressed former head of the Constitutional Security Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, David Akhalaia, exceeded his official powers, committed murder and then fabricated evidence in the wake of the "brutal murder of three youngsters” in the outskirts of capital Tbilisi in 2006. 

Akhalaia is a wanted man in Georgia. 

For the charges, Akhalaia was sentenced in absentia to 12 years in prison and was deprived of taking a state posts for two years following his release. 

The second ex-official who found guilty and sentenced to prison for murder and exceeding official powers in the same case was Giorgi Dgebuadze, ex-head of the Second Unit of the Interior Ministry's Constitutional Security Department. 

The Court sentenced Dgebuadze to nine years behind bars. He was also forbidden to have a job in the public service for two years following his release. 

Dgebuadze, who was wanted by Interpol, was extradited to Georgia in March 2016 from the Netherlands. 

Key facts about the notorious Navtlughi special operation case in 2006. 

• The shooting took place at a bus station in Navtlughi (outskirts of Tbilisi) and claimed the lives of Marad Artmeladze, 23, Roman Surmanidze, 21, and Murad Gorgadze, 17. 
• A 2014 investigation by the current Georgian Dream Government into the young men’s deaths concluded that former head of the Constitutional Security Department David Akhalaia and other people from the department unlawfully shot the young men numerous times.
• The investigation revealed Artmeladze had been shot five times, Surmanidze had been shot six times and Gorgadze had been fired upon 12 times.
• At the time of the incident rumours circulated that the trio would assist several prisoners to host a prison riot, as one of the victims, Gorgadze, had a brother who in jail at the time. 
• At the time of the 2014 investigation, the Chief Prosecutor’s Office said Akhalaia and his brother Bacho Akhalaia (ex-head of the country’s Penitentiary Department) decided to demonstrate "extreme cruelty to society for the purpose of rooting fear among inmates and publically introducing a Zero Tolerance policy” against criminals.