The Human Rights Education and Monitoring Center (EMC), an organisation working on human rights issues, has demanded a crime scene reenactment and the re-interrogation of special unit officers in the high-profile Temirlan Machalikashvili case, a 19-year-old who received a deadly wound during an anti-terrorist raid in Georgia’s Muslim-populated Pankisi Gorge back in 2017.
The Machalikashvili family and the NGO say that Temirlan was “mistakenly shot” in the operation and a crime scene reenactment and re-interrogation of law enforcers are likely to “reveal the truth.”
EMC employees have stated earlier today, at a press conference, that the investigation carried out around the case in Georgia is “superficial, formal and non-effective.”
They say that a big portion of the case materials have been kept classified until the European Court of Human Rights started active discussions on the case on January 10, 2020.
The Machalikashvili family is demanding the punishment of former head of the Georgian State Security Service Vakhtang Gomelauri and his former deputy Ioseb Gogashvili. Photo: EMC.
The interrogation of the special unit servicemen witnessing the incident took place later and the process was superficial,” EMC reported, adding that the materials they have show “a range of mistakes” made by the Georgian State Security Service,” in the operation.
Head of Parliament's Defence Issues Committee Irakli Sesiashvili says that he “fully trusts the investigation carried out in the case” in Georgia and does not support the creation of parliament's investigative commission around the case.
The family of the deceased addressed the European Court of Human Rights on June 6, 2019.
They say that Machalikashvili is a “victim” of the mistakes made by those organising and participating in the anti-terrorist operation.
Machalikashvili died in January 2018 due to a shot in the head.