Verdict Announced on High-Profile Murder, Amid Protests

Civil Georgia, Tbilisi / 6 Jul.'06 / 18:06

Protesters want punishment of those former
top-level officials of the Interior Ministry who
allegedly were behind the Girgvliani murder.

The Tbilisi City Court sentenced Gia Alania, ex-chief of the first unit of the Interior Ministry’s Department for Constitutional Security (DCS), to eight-year imprisonment for Sandro Girgvliani murder case.

Three other officers from the same department were jailed for seven years each. All of them were found guilty of inflicting injuries, which resulted in Girgvliani’s death.

While the presiding judge Giorgi Chemia was announcing his verdict few hundred protesters were rallying outside the Tbilisi City Court to condemn what they said was a biased trial.

Lawyer of the Girgvliani family Shalva Shavgulidze said the court did everything to prevent revealing “the whole truth about the case.”

Chaos and clashes erupted in the court chambers after the announcement of the verdict as opposition party activists and relatives of Girgvliani wrangled with the court marshalls. Reportedly several protesters, including the opposition Republican Party activist were detained for disorders.

Opposition leaders, who attended the protest rally outside the Tbilisi City Court – MP Davit Gamkrelidze of the New Rights party, MP Koba Davitashvili of the Conservative Party, MP Davit Berdzenishvili of the Republican Party, Konstantine Gamsakhurdia of the Freedom Party – called for the demonstration “to respond to the government’s violence.”