Day: July 2, 2026
Police arrested Giorgi Malania, the son of former Deputy Interior Minister Merab Malania, in connection with the murder of 28-year-old teacher Giga Avaliani on allegations of failing to report a crime.
The latest arrest expands the circle of individuals implicated in the high-profile murder case, in which five minors have already been sentenced to multi-year prison terms, as the victim’s mother, Eka Kupatadze, has been demanding accountability for everyone responsible for her son’s death.
Malania, whose father served as deputy interior minister from 2016 to 2019, is also reportedly a minor.
He was arrested in a village in Guria’s Lanchkhuti municipality in western Georgia, his uncle, Kote Malania, told TV Pirveli on July 1.
The Interior Ministry said on July 1 that the defendant “had information about the attack on Giga Avaliani and became aware of the details of the incident shortly after the assault, but did not report it to the police.”
He faces three to seven years in prison as the investigation is underway under Part 2 of Article 376 of the Criminal Code of Georgia, which covers the “failure to report a crime by a person who actually knows that a particularly serious crime is being prepared or has been committed.”
The 28-year-old tutor Giga Avaliani was attacked and assaulted near his apartment building in Tbilisi on October 1, 2025, sustaining critical head injuries. He remained in a coma for more than three weeks before dying in hospital on October 24.
In April, the court delivered the first verdicts in the case, sentencing two minors — Aleksandre Gabashvili and Giorgi Rikadze — to 14 years in prison for intentional infliction of serious harm to health resulting in death, and another minor, Demetre Chikovani, to nine years for attempted intentional infliction of serious harm to health. They were also sentenced for organizing and participating in group violence in the Avaliani case and in four other episodes.
In May and June, two more minors were sentenced to prison, including Ani Naskidashvili, who was found guilty of failing to report a particularly serious crime, the same charge Malania now faces. She was sentenced to seven years in prison.
The jail terms of all convicts in the case were reduced automatically by one-fourth under the juvenile justice code.
The convictions have followed months of public pressure from Avaliani’s mother, Eka Kupatadze, who repeatedly criticized the investigation and demanded accountability for everyone involved in the attack, including individuals who allegedly knew about the planned assault but failed to alert law enforcement authorities.
Investigations into two criminal cases are still ongoing.
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