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Tbilisi City Court has ruled that the Georgian State Security Service (SSG) did not violate the pre­sump­tion of innocence of 19-year-old Temirlan Macha­likashvili, who was fatally shot in late 2017 during an anti-terror sweep in Georgia’s Pankisi Valley.

Machalikashvili’s family, rep­re­sent­ed by local rights group the Human Rights Education and Mon­i­tor­ing Centre (EMC), argued that public state­ments made by the SSG in December 2017 and January 2018 portrayed Macha­likashvili as having been confirmed to support terrorism, which is pun­ish­able under Article 311 of the Georgian Criminal Code.

Macha­likashvili was shot by the SSG on 26 December 2017. Despite remaining in a coma for two weeks before passing away, the author­i­ties never formally charged him. Macha­likashvili died on 10 January without having regained con­scious­ness.

In several state­ments following the operation, the SSG said that Macha­likashvili and four people detained during the sweep ‘were connected to’ and ‘helped’ an armed group allegedly connected to the Islamic State. The group in question were all killed or arrested during November 2017’s armed siege in Tbilisi’s Isani District.

On 22 November, after a siege that lasted 21 hours, SSG special forces arrested one and killed three alleged ter­ror­ists, including Akhmed Chatayev, a member of IS who was accused by Turkey of plotting the 2016 Istanbul airport attack.

On 1 April 2018, the SSG released footage that they said showed Macha­likashvili with two of the now-deceased suspects. Author­i­ties claimed that Macha­likashvili and those detained assisted Chatayev’s group in entering and staying in Georgia.

EMC lawyer Davit Berdzuli told OC Media that though the Court’s explana­to­ry statement is still pending, they are con­sid­er­ing chal­leng­ing the decision.

‘The SSG made infor­ma­tion public that suggested Temirlan Machalikashvili’s guilt in a frag­ment­ed manner, and they released this infor­ma­tion before the court had con­sid­ered the evidence — its relevance and validity — and before there was any official court verdict against him. We believe this violated the principle of presumed innocence’, Berdzuli said.

Following Tuesday’s ruling, the oppo­si­tion United National Movement (UNM) party demanded that a par­lia­men­tary inves­tiga­tive com­mis­sion be created to look into the case.

The UNM’s Nika Melia urged ‘at least 20’ ruling party MPs, the number needed to approve such a committee, to support the ini­tia­tive.

Machalikashvili’s family demanded a par­lia­men­tary probe into the case in December 2018, on the anniver­sary of the special operation, which was supported by the largest oppo­si­tion party in par­lia­ment, the European Georgian party.

Members of the ruling Georgian Dream party said that such a probe was not necessary, as the inves­ti­ga­tion was still ongoing.

Father for Truth

An SSG special forces unit shot Macha­likashvili in his bedroom after, the author­i­ties claimed, he attempted to use a hand grenade.

Machalikashvili’s family has claimed that the teen was shot in his sleep, and accused the author­i­ties of using excessive force and then covering up their actions.

They said that special forces planted a hand grenade near Macha­likashvili, denying him medical services for three hours after he was shot.

In July, EMC accused the author­i­ties of con­duct­ing an ‘infor­ma­tion war’ against Macha­likashvili, after several Georgian media outlets released ‘leaked evidence’, including deleted WhatsApp con­ver­sa­tions and call records retrieved from his phone, which suggested Macha­likashvili had con­nec­tions with terrorist organ­i­sa­tions.

In June 2018, Machalikashvili’s father, Malkhaz Macha­likashvili, became one of two leaders of the Fathers for Truth street protest movement against the misuse of power by the author­i­ties. He has main­tained that the gov­ern­ment made a mistake and demanded his son’s name be cleared.

Following Tuesday’s ruling, Malkhaz and a small group of sup­port­ers held a silent rally in protest at the decision in front of Tbilisi’s par­lia­ment building.

Once again, he urged lawmakers to intervene, and said he planned to lodge a petition with 2,000 sig­na­tures to par­lia­ment on Wednesday.

Talking to OC Media, Malkhaz said that the court ‘did what they were told to do’.

‘The court, the prosecutor’s office… all are Ivanishvili’s slaves […] This is not a gov­ern­ment, and it’s not a state; no justice or judge is real in this country.’

He said that he did not have ‘high expec­ta­tions’ about the results of any par­lia­men­tary com­mis­sion, but hoped that oppo­si­tion parties would do every­thing they can.

‘Is there no one in this par­lia­ment who still has some humanity?’, Malkhaz asked, adding that he still hoped some members of the par­lia­men­tary majority would support an official com­mis­sion.

‘For me, the most important thing is to inform the Georgian people that my child was innocent […] He was not even a suspect or ever charged.’