Chief prosecutor of Georgia resigns after protests against court decision

The chief prosecutor of Georgia Irakli Shotadze has resigned after protests which broke out as a result of the court decision made today on the sensational case of the murder of two schoolchildren on 1 December 2017.

Shotadze’s letter of resignation was published on the website of the General Prosecutor’s Office. In his statement, Shotadze once again expressed his condolences to the families of the murdered adolescents and noted that he ‘did everything for the criminals to be held accountable’.

The spontaneous protest action demanding the resignation of Shotadze began in front of the building of the Chief Prosecutor’s Office immediately after the announcement of the decision of the Tbilisi City Court in the case of the murder of two 16-year-old teenagers, Levan Dadunashvili and David Saralidze, in the centre of Tbilisi.

The court partially acquitted the defendants in the case who were both minors.

One of the accused was found guilty of murdering Dadunashvili, but acquitted of the murder of Saralidze. As for the second accused in the murder of Saralidze, the prosecution was re-qualified from a deliberate murder to an attempted willful murder.

The judge therefore considered that none of the accused were guilty of Saralidze’s murder, and that the real killer has not yet been found.

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The court decision caused severe uproar. The father of one of the murder victims, Zaza Saralidze, called on the people of Georgia to support him and go outside demanding the resignation of the chief prosecutor.

Saralidze had stated repeatedly that the police did not detain all those responsible. Over several months Salaridze blamed the prosecutor’s office of preventing an objective investigation and covering up for the son of a former employee of the agency who was involved in the murder of his son.

“My words were confirmed by the court, which acquitted the detainees in the case of my son. With this decision, the court has demonstrated to the prosecutor’s office that the real killers were still at large,” Saralidze told journalists after the trial.

Opposition politicians and members of the public joined the protest. They accused the prosecutor’s office of either an incompetent investigation or the cover up of real criminals.

Irakli Shotadze served as the Chief Prosecutor from 2015.