Kesaria Abramidze, a well-known Georgian transgender woman, 37, was found brutally murdered in her apartment on the night of September 18. The Ministry of Internal Affairs has arrested her boyfriend, Beka Jaiani, the next morning as the suspected killer.
The case is being investigated under Article 109 of the Criminal Code, for premeditated murder with aggravating circumstances of special cruelty based on gender identity. The victim reportedly suffered multiple stab wounds. The suspect faces 16 to 20 years or life imprisonment.
Reports indicate that about two hours before the murder, Kesaria Abramidze posted a photo of herself and her boyfriend on her Facebook story. This has led to speculations that the photo may have triggered the crime, as her boyfriend allegedly did not want it to be made public.
Neighbors and friends of the victim describe a toxic relationship between Kesaria Abramidze and Beka Jaiani with reports of constant physical and psychological abuse. At one point, she had to leave the country due to persistent manipulation and violence, which she discussed in a post from April this year. It appears that relevant law enforcement authorities did not adequately address her concerns.
On the morning of September 19, several media outlets published surveillance footage from Abramidze’s apartment building. The footage shows Beka Jaiani entering and leaving the building within 14 minutes – allegedly the same period in which Abramidze was killed.
The news of Abramidze’s murder was reported about an hour later after neighbors, alarmed by the sounds of a struggle, discovered her covered in blood in her apartment.
“This fact is yet another confirmation that law enforcement and public response to hate and gender-motivated crimes must be especially strict,” Georgia’s Public Defender Levan Ioseliani reacted to the tragic murder shortly after the media reports.
Kesaria Abramidze was a well-known Georgian transgender model. Her tragic murder shook the entire society. “A terrible murder! A denial of humanity! Only this might sober up our society… Hopefully, the killing of this beautiful young woman will at least serve to make us more humane and Christian,” President Salome Zurabishvili posted on her Facebook.
The news came just one day after Georgia’s Parliament passed a controversial anti-LGBT legislation, which stigmatizes the community and restricts their freedom of expression and assembly. But the government’s anti-LGBT rhetoric goes back much further.
“There is a direct correlation between the use of hate speech in politics and hate crimes,” Social Justice Center (SJC), a human rights watchdog, said in its statement reacting to the murder. “It has been almost a year that the Georgian Dream government has been aggressively using homo/bi/transphobic language and cultivating it with mass propaganda means,” the SJC adds.
“It is certain that the policy of hate has serious consequences – harassment of LGBTI people, their marginalization and violence against them. The case of the murder of Kesaria Abramidze cannot be perceived without this general context,” the SJC says.
The watchdog calls on the Georgian MIA and the Prosecutor’s Office to investigate whether the crime was motivated by hate, in particular transphobia, and whether the murder was preceded by previous acts of violence, as well as whether the Georgian MIA and the Prosecutor’s Office responded adequately to them.
Michael Roth, Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the German Bundestag, who visited Georgia two days ago, also reacted to the case: “Kesaria Abramidze was killed. Just one day after the Georgian parliament passed the anti-LGBTI law. I am deeply shocked and call on the ruling party “Georgian Nightmare” to immediately withdraw the shameful law.”
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