Special Investigation Service to investigate assault on TV channel founder

Georgia’s Special Investigation Service on Thursday said it was taking over the investigation of the assault on Misha Mshvildadze, a founder of the Formula TV channel, in Georgia’s capital Tbilisi last week.

The agency said the case had been transferred from the Ministry of Internal Affairs following a directive by Prosecutor General Irakli Shotadze, and added it would carry out “all required formal and investigative steps” in procedures.

Law enforcement arrested the alleged offender on June 28, after he took responsibility for the assault in a social media post earlier that day, telling his followers he had attacked Mshvildadze for “insulting the Catholicos Patriarch of the Georgian Orthodox Church and the Church, as well as Georgian nation”.

The court accepted the prosecution’s request to keep the alleged offender in custody, with the next hearing for the case scheduled for August 22.