Day: November 9, 2024
The Tbilisi City Court found the Head of the Investigation Department of the Adjara Main Department of the Constitutional Security Service and two Special Forces officers guilty of the deliberate illegal detention of Roin Shavadze, a veteran of the August 2008 war, and of the collective murder of a helpless person.
The Tbilisi City Court found all three defendants fully guilty and sentenced the Special Forces officers to 12 years and 12 months imprisonment and the Head of the Investigation Department to 7 years and 6 months imprisonment.
The Prosecutor Generals press release said that according to the investigation conducted by the Prosecutor’s Office of Georgia, on 16 August 2008, the employees of the Main Department of Constitutional Security of the Autonomous Republic of Adjara, under the leadership of the head of the department and his deputy, allegedly on the basis of operational information, on the charge of cooperation with the special services of a foreign country, brutally attacked Roin Shavadze with machine-gun butts shot in a café in the city of Batumi.
As a result of the assault, says the Prosecutor Service press release, Roin Shavadze sustained serious, life-threatening injuries. The members of the special forces took Roin Shavadze, who had lost consciousness as a result of the attack, from the scene of the accident by car and killed him near the Adjara-Guria border with several shots from automatic weapons.
A total of 13 people have been prosecuted in this case. All of them have been found guilty.
Sergeant Roin Shavadze was a brigade sergeant in the Georgian Ministry of Defense. He participated in a peacekeeping mission in Iraq as part of coalition forces in 2005-2006, during which he received a medal for exemplary service. He also fought in the August War of 2008. On August 16, 2008, Georgian security forces arrested Roin Shavadze in the streets of Batumi, Adjarian capital. Eyewitnesses report seeing the security officers beating him and calling him “a traitor of this country”, before they put him in a police van. Six hours later, a police officer notified Shavadze’s wife of the death of her husband. According to the official version, Shavadze was arrested in relation to a drug offense and fatally injured when he tried to escape. The reports of the arrest and personal search report stating that drugs had allegedly been found during Roin Shavadze’s arrest were both later found to be fraudulently drawn up with support of the head of the Investigation Department.
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