Wounded Suspect’s Father Claims Gov’t Refrains from Providing Treatment to his Son Abroad
By Gvantsa Gabekhadze
Wednesday, January 10
(TBILISI)--Father of a wounded 19-year-old from Georgia’s Muslim-populated Pankisi Gorge claims the Government of Georgia may not be interested in sending his son to Germany for a high-quality treatment, in the wake of the December 26 anti-terrorist raid.
Malkhaz Machalikashvili, whose son Temirlan Machalikashvili suffers from a severe head injury, says the Ministry of Health did not inform him that one of the best German clinics accepted to provide treatment to his son.
“The government wants to send my son to a not- so- good hospital for the treatment in Turkey. They have hidden the German clinic’s decision, to accept my son for treatment, from me; they have sent an invoice to Georgia,” Machalikashvili told the media.
According to Machalikashvili, the government is either not interested in recovery of his son, who as he says was “mistakenly shot and accused of terrorism,” or the authorities refrain from covering the medical expenses that amount to ˆ200,000.
The Health Ministry responded that the German clinic, mentioned by Machalikashvili with the media, refused to provide the treatment of the suspect.
A couple of days ago, the State Security Service of Georgia published a video in which the wounded is with two members of the Ahmed Chatayev’s group. Chatayev, who is considered as one of the masterminders of the terror act at Istanbul Ataturk Airport in 2016, blew himself up in Tbilisi on November 22.
The two members of the group that are shown with a 19-year-old Machalikashvili in the video footage were also killed during the large-scale raid in the outskirts of Tbilisi in November. As a result of the raid, only one suspect was detained.
The State Security Service detained four and wounded one, Machalikashvili, in December raid in Pankisi. The law enforcers believe the Chatayev’s group received some local help to travel from Turkey to Georgia.
The Security Service says they have evidence proving the links.
The Mother of Temirlan Machalkashvili says the footage released by the law enforcers was taken two years ago.
“We also know the two people who are in the video with my son. But, we knew them with different names. They freely walked in Pankisi and Tbilisi. If they were terrorists why the police did not take measures against them two years ago?” Aiza Margoshvili says.
The family has dismissed any links with terrorists.
