NGO demands crime scene reenactment, re-interrogations in high-profile Machalikashvili case
Father of deceased Temirlan Machalikashvili says that his son was mistakenly shot in 2017. Phoro: RFE/RL.
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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.
The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has launched a discussion on the high profile case of terrorism suspect Temirlan Machalikashvili, who received a fatal injury during an anti-terrorist raid in Georgia’s Muslim-populated Pankisi Gorge back in 2017.
Father of deceased terror suspect Temirlan Machalikashvili, Malkhaz Machalikashvili, does not deny that he may have had a conversation with his relative regarding a terror attack on former deputy head of Georgia’s State Security Service Ioseb Gogashvili, as “he had such thoughts during a time of much anger.”
19-year-old Temirlan Machalikashvili, who was accused of supporting terrorists, died early today at a hospital in capital Tbilisi, after about two weeks of being in a coma.
Georgia’s Chief Prosecutor Irakli Shotadze has offered the family of recently deceased terrorism suspect Temirlan Machalikashvili to meet in Tbilisi, at Georgia’s Chief Prosecutor’s Office headquarters.
The European Court of Human Rights on Thursday ruled there was “no sufficient evidence” to suggest responsibility of the Georgian state in the death of Temirlan Machalikashvili, a 19-year-old local of the country’s north-eastern Pankisi Gorge who died following an anti-terrorist operation involving the State Security Service in 2017.