A 37-year-old man has died after allegedly being tortured in a police station in Georgia, TV Pirveli reports.
Alan Kakitashvili, an employee of the Tbilisi City Hall Cleaning Service, died in hospital on 8 June after falling into a coma shortly following his detention by police. Two witnesses testified to hearing ‘desperate cries’ from his cell before he was transferred to hospital.
He was taken for questioning to a police station in Tbilisi, following a physical altercation at the Megobrebi restaurant in the city earlier that evening. The dinner had reportedly been organised for Tbilisi City Hall employees.
During the incident, Kakitashvili is reported to have injured at least one person, Dimitri Sadoev, with a sharp or blunt weapon.
The TV station reported that after the fight, Kakitashvili and another man who was allegedly involved, Irakli Tatunashvili, took a taxi to Kakitashvili’s flat in the neighbouring city of Gori.
Police later arrested the two, taking them to a police station in Tbilisi. Hours later, Kakitashvili was taken from the police station by ambulance in a comatose state, placed in an intensive care unit and required head surgery. He was pronounced dead the following day at the First University Clinic.
Georgia's Deputy Interior Minister, Aleksandre Darakhvelidze, stated that Kakitashvili had lost consciousness at the police station due to injuries he sustained during the fight.
However, during a court hearing on 10 June, Tatunashvili, as well as Kakitashvili’s alleged victim, Dimitri Sadoev, both testified to hearing ‘desperate cries’ from Kakitashvili at the police station, with Tatunashvili also saying he was crying for help.
Tatunashvili said he was himself taken to a room in the police station with six ‘high-ranking police officers’ who beat him up, including jumping on him from a sofa.
‘I've never been hit so hard in my life’, Tatunashvili said at the hearing, which was broadcast on TV Pirveli.
Tatunashvili has also denied that Kakitashvili was seriously injured during the incident at the restaurant, stating that as Kakitashvili was bald, he would have seen any head injuries if there were any. Witnesses also said Kakitashvili had not called himself an ambulance after going home.
CCTV footage obtained by TV Pirveli from outside the restaurant also showed Kakitashvili and Tatunashvili leaving the restaurant after the incident, with Kakitashvili appearing unharmed enough to leave on his feet.
