Father of Georgian footballer accused of murder threatens with suicide

Tamaz Khomasuridze has been holding a hunger strike for the second day in front of the building of the General Prosecutor's Office of Georgia. The protestor insists that his son was not involved in the murder of football player Giorgi Shakarashvili. The protester threatens to move to more drastic measures and commit suicide if his son is not tested on a polygraph.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that in the evening on June 18, Giorgi Shakarashvili, a 19-year-old student of the Tbilisi "Saburtalo" FC's academy, was attacked on a highway and killed. According to investigators, Giorgi Shakarashvili was severely beaten with a stick, stones, and fists, kicked, and then thrown into the Aragvi River, where he drowned. The police detained 17 people back on June 27. Of them, five are accused of the wilful murder, and other 12 – of organizing and participating in collective violence.

Tamaz Khomasuridze, the father of one of the suspects accused of the murder, went on the hunger strike in front of the General Prosecutor's Office in the evening on August 18, the day when the court began to consider the case on the merits. Tamaz Khomasuridze claims that his son, who at the time of the murder was a minor, is not guilty. The hunger-striker demands to interrogate his son on a polygraph and to remove a public prosecutor from the case.

"If my demands are not met within three days, I will start a dry hunger strike. If my demands are not met even after that, then I will commit suicide within three days," the protestor told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

Tamaz Khomasuridze claims that law enforcers were beating his son to force him to confess to the crime. "I attended an interrogation. They were beating my son in my presence in order to get certain testimony," the man claimed.

According to Tamaz Khomasuridze, his son did not participate in the beating of the murdered football player at all.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on August 19, 2020 at 05:39 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.