Kutaisi Court of Appeals sentenced Abkhaz serviceman Rashid Kanji-Ogli to 14 years of prison over Khurcha fatal shooting, when Giga Otkhozoria, a thirty-year-old Georgian citizen, was shot dead.

Otkhozoria was murdered on the Georgian-controlled territory at the Khurcha-Nabakevi crossing point between Abkhazia’s predominantly ethnic Georgian-populated Gali district and its adjoining Zugdidi district of Samegrelo region on May 19, 2016.

On December 26, Zugdidi City Court found Rashid Kanji-Ogli guilty of murder and sentenced him to 12 years of prison in absentia. The ruling was challenged by the Prosecutor’s Office in the Kutaisi Court of Appeals, citing “light” penalty.