Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili has attended the funeral of Kesaria Abramidze, a trans media personality and model who was murdered last week.
Abramidze was laid to rest at a ceremony in Tbilisi on Sunday. She was also commemorated in Antwerp, a Belgian city that is home to a number of queer refugees and asylum seekers from Georgia.
The Georgian Orthodox Church refused to provide burial services for Abramidze due to her transgender identity.
Abramidze’s former partner, 26-year-old Beka Jaiani has been arrested and charged with her murder. According to the investigation, Jaiani stabbed Abramidze 28 times with a knife in her flat. He was apprehended a day later and has denied the charges through his lawyer.
[Read more: Heartbreak in Georgia after murder of prominent trans woman]
However, the Prosecutor’s Office has stated that he had admitted to being allowed into Abramidze’s apartment on 18 September, the day of the murder, after agreeing to her posting photos of the two on social media.
Communications revealed by a friend of the victim have suggested that Jaiani was opposed to making their relationship public, but that he also refused to accept that they broke up.
Jaiani has been charged with premeditated murder with particular cruelty ‘based on gender’. If convicted, he could face up to 16 years or life imprisonment.
Abramidze was a widely recognised and outspoken figure who was perhaps the most prominent personality from Georgia’s queer community. She came to prominence in the Georgian media over a decade ago.
