Editor’s note: This article has been updated to include new and revised information about the case.
Two teenage boys have been arrested in connection with the fatal beating of 28-year-old teacher Giga Avaliani, who died in the hospital earlier in October. Georgia’s Prosecutor General’s Office said the crime was premeditated and was motivated by the primary attacker’s jealousy regarding the teacher’s relationship to his girlfriend.
In a statement released on Sunday, the Prosecutor General’s Office said that Avaliani had been ambushed and punched in the face by the teenage attacker identified only as A.G. on 1 October, after which he fell and ‘received a life-threatening serious injury’.
Avaliani was then hospitalised, but his health continued to deteriorate, and he died on 24 October.
The Prosecutor General’s Office said the attacker was arrested on 19 October and charged with intentionally inflicting serious bodily harm, which ultimately resulted in Avaliani’s death. On Sunday, another teenager, identified as H.R. was arrested and charged with being at the scene but failing to report the crime. The second individual recorded a video of the assault, the Prosecutor General’s Office said.
Both have been remanded into pre-trial detention.
Other media outlets have filled in various additional details of the case, with RFE/RL reporting that Avaliani was struck with batons, and TV Pirveli writing, citing unconfirmed information, that the attack may have been carried out by as many as four teenagers, including a girl.
‘My son was killed by 16-17-year-old children, who will kill your children tomorrow if they are not caught’, Avaliani’s mother said on social media on 25 October.
Avaliani was reportedly the teenagers’ private tutor— according to local media, A.G. became jealous as his girlfriend apparently also studied with Avaliani.
OC Media
