Five people detained for murder of a British citizen in Georgia

British citizen killed in Georgia

On October 11, five local residents were detained in Georgia on suspicion of the premeditated murder of 28-year-old British citizen Thomas Kennedy.

According to the Mtavari TV channel, Kennedy arrived in Georgia on August 30, he was a student at a local music college. His body was found on October 8 in the Mtkvari River near the village of Kvakhvreli in the Gori region.

The investigation established that on October 7, the defendants were drinking with Kennedy in an underpass in the city of Gori. Then the group of people moved to one of the bars where a quarrel ensued and Kennedy got beaten and thrown into the river unconscious. The accused fled the scene.

According to Mtavari, police found Kennedy’s cell phone at a pawnshop. It is presumed that it was handed over there by those who killed him.

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The investigation has been launched under the article 109 of the criminal code of Georgia- premeditated murder committed with aggravating circumstances, punishable by 13-17 years in prison. 

One of the detainees, 23-year-old Vasil Okropiridze, who knew about the incident and did not report it to the police, is currently facing 3-7 years in prison.

His brothers claim that he didn’t really know about the murder. According to them, Okropiridze is a street musician, he played in the underpass, where Kennedy supposedly stopped to listen to him. There he met with the other four people and went to the bar with them.

This is not the first time that foreign citizens have been attacked, beaten or killed in Georgia. The country is increasingly talking about the fact that the country has become unsafe for foreigners.

As of 2021:

● On July 31, in the central part of the city, in the Mtatsminda area, an Australian citizen Shanae Brooke was found murdered. Her killer was an activist of the ruling Georgian Dream party.

● On July 30, Berlin DJ Phase Phatale was attacked in Batumi. The artist wrote on Instagram that the attack had a homophobic motive.

● On July 14, an Azerbaijani blogger who opposed the Aliyev government fell from the roof of the Rooms hotel. According to the investigation, it was a suicide.

● On July 5, a Polish citizen, 49-year-old Jacek Kolankiewicz, was stabbed in the chest, Formula-1 TV channel reported. In this case, a homophobic motive was also named as the reason for the attack.

● About five months ago in Rustavi, two men raped a 25-year-old foreign woman who was later hospitalized in shock.

● On May 5, 26-year-old citizen of Kazakhstan Asel Aytpayeva was found dead under the windows of a residential building on Kedia Street in Tbilisi. The official version is also ssuicide.