Former investigator in case of programmer Tamar Bachaliashvili arrested

Former investigator in Bachaliashvili case arrested

Sergo Shubitidze, a former investigator in the case of the death in 2020 of Tamar Bachaliashvili, has been arrested, the Georgian prosecutor’s office reports. Prosecutors cited false testimony as the reason for his arrest.

Shubitidze, during an interrogation as a witness in court, repeated information provided by one of the TV companies, the prosecutor’s office said in a statement. He is accused of obstruction of justice and an attempt to mislead society, the family of the victim, as well as the investigating authorities, by giving false testimony.

23-year-old Tamar Bachaliashvili disappeared on July 18, 2020. A few days later she was found dead in her car about 60 kilometers from Tbilisi. The Prosecutor’s Office of Georgia then closed the case, declaring it suicide. The family stated from the beginning that they did not believe this theory.

And on April 29, 2023, Shubitidze stated that he also did not believe in the suicide theory and that the investigation was falsified. According to Shubitidze, the main inconsistencies in the investigation were related to Bachaliashvili’s mobile phone. The assistant to the detective, Elguja Apuashvili, brought it in with a request to have it sealed. However, this had to be done right on the spot upon discovery of the corpse. In addition, when studying it, the phone turned out to be nothing but advertising messages, which also aroused Shubitidze’s suspicions.

In turn, the prosecutor’s office states: “The investigation confirmed that the accused is giving false evidence to the court, since the mobile phone belonging to Tamar Bachaliashvili was not opened until it was transferred to the National Bureau of Expertise named after Levan Samkharauli. Accordingly, not a single investigator, including Sergo Shubitidze, examined him. Because Tamar Bachaliashvili’s mobile phone was coded. The specialists of the bureau were able to access the memory of the mobile phone only through a special program, as a result of which the information in the phone was deleted. The recovered information unequivocally proves that the information of the period before July 18, 2020 existed in the mobile phone of Tamar Bachaliashvili.”