Georgian court sentences investigator to 3 years in prison for coercing minor into confession leading to suicide
After the death of the minor, State Inspector Londa Toloraia, who was investigating the cause behind the death of 15-year-old Luka Siradze, said that investigator Choloiani threatened the minor that if he did not admit to the crime, his brother would have ‘problems’. Photo: Mariana Choloiani/screenshot from TV Imedi video.
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Tbilisi City Court has sentenced investigator Mariana Choloiani to 3 years in prison for placing psychological pressure on 15-year-old Luka Siradze, who subsequently tried to commit suicide and died several days later on December 17, 2019.
- Minor injured in suicide attempt dies
- Investigator charged with exerting pressure on minor leading to death
After the death of the minor, his family and lawyer said that law enforcers and the investigator Choloiani exerted psychological pressure on Luka Siradze, coercing him into admitting to the crime of damaging the property of the Mtsvane School in Tbilisi and writing vulgar phrases on its walls.
After the death of the minor, the Georgian Prosecutor’s Office announced that while questioning Siradze, Choloiani did not follow the Juvenile Justice Code of Georgia and instead forced him to plead guilty.
After the death of the minor, State Inspector Londa Toloraia, who was investigating the cause behind the death of 15-year-old Luka Siradze, said that investigator Choloiani threatened the minor that if he did not admit to the crime, his brother would have ‘problems’.
Toloraia also noted that the investigator violated the law when she leveraged interrogations with Siradze’s peers ”a process which ultimately stressed the minors”.
One more violation of the Juvenile Justice Code was that a psychologist was not present during the interrogation of Luka Siradze.
State Inspector Londa Toloraia, who is investigating causes behind the death of 15-year-old Luka Siradze, says that investigator Mariana Choloiani, who has been sent to pretrial detention, made threats to the minor that if he had not admitted to the crime his brother would have had problems.
Tbilisi City Court has sent female investigator Mariana Choloiani to detention for exerting pressure on Luka Siradze, 15, who died at M. Iashvili Children’s Central Hospital earlier this week.
Georgian PM Giorgi Gakharia once again responded to the death of a minor on December 17 and stated that there is no time for politicizing tragedies as concrete, further steps must be taken for the welfare of children. “What the state does in terms of systemic reforms or the improvement of the education field, everything which is in touch with the youth must be even more effective, target-oriented and prevent such tragedies."
Georgian President Salome Zurabishvili has responded to the death of 15-year-old Luka Siradze, who jumped from the ninth floor of a building after being subjected to alleged psychological pressure at Didube police station in Tbilisi, saying that “we must make major changes to avoid such tragedies.”“The death of a 15-year-old boy is a big tragedy for the state. I share the hard moments with the family and wish them to stand strong in this very difficult time,” Zurabishvili wrote.
Investigator Mariana Choloiani, who was sentenced to three years in prison for ‘applying psychological pressure’ to 15-year-old Luka Siradze back in 2019 who later committed suicide, has been early released from prison, her lawyer Gagi Mosiashvili has confirmed.