Killed Teen’s Father Announces Protests from September
By Tea Mariamidze
Wednesday, August 8
Zaza Saralidze, the father of the killed teenager David Saralidze, who was stabbed to death in a street brawl on December 1, is going to start large-scale protest rallies from September.
Saralidze says the decision was made the planned visit to Strasbourg failed due to the Georgian special services.
The father of the killed teenager was going to leave for Strasbourg with Malkhaz Machalikashvili, father of 19-year-old Temirlan Machalikashvili, who was killed by the Special Forces during anti-terrorist operation on December 26 and Kronika + editor Eliso Kiladze.
The group was going to hold meetings in Strasbourg with the European lawyers and human rights defenders about the cases of their sons.
As Kiladze stated in her interview with Rustavi 2 TV, the three persons were going to arrive in Strasbourg via Munich, but the organizer of their visit informed her that their delegation members were suspected in terrorism, this is why they decided not to leave.
Saralidze and Kiladze sent a letter to the Embassy of Germany to Georgia and informed them in details about the reason of their planned visit to Strasbourg.
They claim that the State Security Service of Georgia is doing its best to prevent them inform Europe about the two cases, adding the Georgian authorities told Germany that their delegation was suspected of terrorism.
“If we left for Strasbourg, I and Machalikashvili would have been arrested there with terrorism charges…I am waiting for the explanation from the authorities why the government did so, why did they suspect Machalikashvili and me in terrorism,” Saralidze stated.
Saralidze’s 16-year-old son, David was killed in a street brawl on December 1, 2017. On May 31, Tbilisi City Court charged two minors – one for the premeditated murder of Dadunashvili, the second teen killed in the brawl and charged another minor for the attempted murder of Saralidze; however, the court could not say who had killed Saralidze, which sparked mass protests in the capital.
Both Machalikashvili and Saralidze claim the cases of their sons’ murder are not impartially investigated and demand justice.
