Interpol issues yellow search notice for 13-year-old boy missing from Svaneti

Interpol has issued a yellow search notice for 13-year-old Ilia Pilpani from the Svaneti region of western Georgia who went missing on July 18. 

Yellow notices are issued to help locate missing persons, often minors, or to help identify persons who are unable to identify themselves.

The boy's family appealed to Interpol with a request to get involved in the search in early September.

No video or telephone recordings have been found to indicate that the boy may have crossed the country's borders. As you know, the so-called borders with Abkhazia and Tskhinvali are not monitored. Maybe he was there, although the teenager was unable to cross the border on his own”, said the missing boy's father.

Physical description of Pilpani given by the Interpol. Screenshot from Interpol yellow notice section.

The family of Pilpani announced they will give a reward of 50,000 GEL to find their child and 30,000 GEL to provide important information for the investigation.

Pilpani, who is a citizen of Kazakhstan, left his home in Lenjeri village of Mestia municipality on a bicycle on July 18.

He doesn't speak Georgian. He came on vacation with his father’s relatives to Svaneti in the winter and was unable to return back to Kazakhstan due to the pandemic. 

The rocky and wooden landscape in the vicinity of the area where the boy went missing has complicated the search, conducted by professionals as well as locals both in the highland region and on the Black Sea coast, where, according to some assumptions, he could be located.