Prosecutor's Office finds false testimony in case on Georgian football player's murder

A woman from Georgia thought up a story about a conversation which was allegedly overheard by her and which concerned the circumstances of the death of football player Giorgi Shakarashvili, the Prosecutor's Office reports.

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. The police detained 16 people. Of them, five were accused of the wilful murder, and other 11 – of organizing and participating in collective violence, as well as unlawful deprivation of liberty.

The police detained a woman, who, according to public prosecutor Amiran Guluashvili, "dreamed of a journalistic career" and provided law enforcers with false information about the Giorgi Shakarashvili's murder in order to "publicly declare herself."

On July 15, the woman told journalists that while walking, she accidentally overheard a conversation in which companions mentioned Giorgi Shakarashvili and another person involved in the case, who, according to the companions, "behaved in a bad way." However, the check conducted by the Prosecutor's Office revealed that at the time when the above conversation was allegedly overheard, the woman did not leave the house, the Georgian "First Channel" TV Company broadcasts today with reference to the public prosecutor.

The woman has been charged under the criminal article on false testimony, which provides for up to seven years of imprisonment, the "News-Georgia" reports today.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on September 3, 2020 at 04:58 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.