The Georgian Interior Ministry stated that a 27-year-old man was detained in the western region of Guria on charges of raping a 14-year-old.
According to a statement released by the ministry on Sunday, the detainee, born in 1998, was under a suspended sentence for an unspecified offence at the time of the latest crime.
As the ministry noted, the preliminary investigation established that after allegedly raping the minor, the suspect fled the scene and was later detained.
If found guilty, he faces up to 20 years or life imprisonment.
There are no exact statistics on sexual violence against children in Georgia, which then-Deputy Prosecutor General, Natia Merebashvili, explained in a 2024 interview with RFE/RL by noting that ‘this category of crime is characterised by latency and difficulty of detection’.
According to data shared by the Prosecutor General’s Office with the same outlet, the accuracy of which is not guaranteed, the number of child victims of sexual offences from 2022–2023 was 260.
Aytan Farhadova
