Man detained for notorious murder case of Vazagashvili faces 20 years in prison
By Gvantsa Gabekhadze
Tuesday, November 10
Tbilisi City Court has sentence a man to twenty years in prison for the notoriously brutal murder of Yuri Vazagashvili.
The court delivered the verdict on November 6, stating that Giorgi Sosanashvili was found guilty of killing Yuri Vazagashvili at his son’s grave on January 20 of this year.
Concerning the case, Georgia’s Chief Prosecutor’s Office has also released a statement, saying that Sosanashvili was irritated by the fact that Vazagashvili headed a public movement fighting for human rights since his son Zurab Vazagashvili was killed under the previous state leadership.
The Prosecutor’s Office emphasised that Sonanashvili’s irritation was related to the fear that people he respected might be sentenced if Z. Vazagashvili’s murder case would be opened, which his son, Y. Vazagashvili, had been fighting for.
“Thus, Sosanashvili detonated a bomb at Z. Vazagashvili’s grave that exploded when Y. Vazagashvili visited the site,” the Prosecutor’s Office said, noting that 9 volumes of materials had been drafted by the Office over the case, with about 70 witnesses being summoned for questioning and the results of 20 different expert conclusions analyzed.
“The Court has spent nearly 4 months examining the 9 volumes of evidence obtained and presented by the Prosecutor’s Office. A total of 70 witnesses of the prosecution have been questioned; more than 20 Examination Reports - including the those of genetic, forensic medical, soil and ballistic fields - have been studied at the trial. On the basis of the weight of the aforementioned evidence, the murder of Yuri Vazagashvili by Giorgi Sosanashvili using an explosive device has been incontrovertibly proven,” the Office said.
Last month, Tbilisi City Court also sent three former Georgian law enforcement officials to prison for the premeditated murder of Zurab Vazagashvili and Alexander Khubulov. Two were sentenced to 12 years behind bars and one for 8 years; among them was the former head of the Criminal Police Department, Irakli Pirtskhalava, who received the 12-year sentence.
The court said that the former officials killed the innocent Z. Vazagashvili and Khubulov in May 2006, and then faked the report documents in order to portray the crime as a self-defence incident.
