8 People Arrested in Connection with Roin Shavidze Murder After 15 Years, Search to be Declared on 2

In 2005-2006, Roin Shavadze took part in the peacekeeping mission in Iraq as part of the coalition forces, during which he was awarded a medal for exemplary service. In 2007, he was thanked for his honorable performance of duty by the order of the Chief of the Joint Staff of the Georgian Armed Forces. He also participated in the military engagements of the August 2008 war.

On November 19, 2020, the European Court of Human Rights, in the case Shavadze v. Georgia, found a violation of Article 2 of the European Convention, namely, the right to life. By the court’s assessment, the then government’s claim that Shavadze’s death was a result of the use of necessary force to prevent his alleged attempt to escape during arrest did not correspond to the available evidence in the case. The Strasbourg court ordered the Georgian side to conduct an effective investigation, while the Council of Europe's Committee of Ministers supervised the execution of the ruling and the course of the investigation.

In a statement released today, the General Prosecutor’s Office described the details of the reinvestigation:

• It was established that on August 15, 2008, the head of the main division of the Constitutional Security Department (CSD) of the Autonomous Republic of Adjara was tasked with covertly investigating Roin Shavadze, a Batumi resident, as intelligence supposedly came in suggesting that Shavadze was cooperating with the ‘’special services’’ of a foreign country.
• On the very next day, August 16, the head of the main division of the CSD of the Autonomous Republic of Adjara, along with two employees, went to the base of the Fifth Infantry Brigade of the Ministry of Defense, where Roin Shavadze served, and asked the brigade commander to visually point him out from a distance. Upon landing eyes on Roin Shavadze, the head of the main department cursed at him several times and threatened to exemplarily punish him.
• On the same day, employees of the CSD special forces unit, under the leadership of the head of the main division, tackled Roin Shavadze in a cafe located at the intersection of Gamsakhurdia and Melashvili streets in Batumi and brutally beat him with the butts of rifles.
• As a result of the violence, Roin Shavadze received severe, life-threatening injuries, including a fracture of the left shoulder and femur, multiple fractures of the ribs, as well as numerous injuries in the form of cuts and bruises.
• The members of the special forces placed unconscious Roin Shavadze on the back seat of one of the vehicles and took him away from the scene.
• Dozens of citizens witnessed the incident, as it took place during the daytime in a public place.
• After the beating, the members of the special task force, led by the head of the main division, took Roin Shavadze in the direction of the Kobuleti-Kakuti highway with the intent to murder. They were joined by other members of the special forces at Batumi exit.
• At the crossing of Kobuleti and Guria, the said persons stopped the vehicles, pulled the helpless body of Shavadze out of the car, placed him on the side of the road, near the tree line, and executed him by riddling him with multiple shots from Kalashnikov rifles.
• According to the coroners’ report, Roin Shavadze had about 40 gunshot wounds on his body.
• In addition to gunshot wounds, the deceased had physical injuries that he had suffered as a result of beating before his death. Among them, a fracture of the left humerus and the left femur; Injuries in the area of ​​the nose, eye socket, and forehead in the form of cuts and bruises; lacerations in the chin and neck area; multiple rib fractures; fracture of the phalanges of the 2nd and 3rd finger of the left hand.
• Roin Shavadze's body had also sustained circular thermal injuries consistent with cigarette burns; there were also traces of round-shaped thermal damage, which may have developed as a result of an impact of a barrel of a firearm on the body.

According to the Prosecutor's Office, in order to disguise the fact of Roin Shavadze's illegal detention and subsequent murder, the staff of the Criminal Investigation Department developed a false sequence of events:

• A false protocol of arrest and personal search was fabricated in the Department of Constitutional Security, which alleged that a narcotic substance was found during the arrest of Roin Shavadze, which did not constitute the truth, and in fact, the narcotic substance was brought to the place of arrest by the persons involved in the arrest.
• According to this version of events, the booking of the felon detained for drug crime should have taken place in Tbilisi. During the transit, Roin Shavadze requested to stop the vehicle as if to answer the call of nature, after which he managed to wrestle the gun away from a member of the special forces, shoot in their direction and run away, which forced the operatives to return fire.
• In order to substantiate the false version, the members of the special task force tampered with the crime scene so that the site of the intentional killing of Roin Shavadze would resemble the lawful killing of a guilty person under the conditions of necessary repulsion.
• In particular, they fired several shots from the Makarov-type pistol in the direction of their own vehicle and placed the said pistol near the body of Roin Shavadze. After that, the special forces members gave false statements to the investigation to corroborate the fabricated version.

The reinvestigation conducted by the Prosecutor’s Office confirmed that the detainee could not have been processed on route to Tbilisi, as on August 16, 2008, the highway was shut due to the Russian-Georgian war. According to the said version, the person arrested for drug crime should have been processed in Tbilisi, for which there was no legal basis, and he was allegedly being transported on the personal orders of the head of the Constitutional Security Department, which proves that the purpose of transporting Shavadze from the place of arrest was not to book him in Tbilisi.

The forensic medical examination conducted on the case confirmed that in light of the severe injuries sustained as a result of the beating, in particular the fracture of the left shoulder and femur, it would have been impossible for Roin Shavadze to physically resist the members of the special forces, including quick movement and/or escape.

Thus, the false version, as if the liquidation of Roin Shavadze was carried out to prevent his escape, was disproved beyond any reasonable doubt. Also, it was established that no investigation had been launched on Roin Shavadze's supposed cooperation with the ‘’special services’’ of a foreign country either at that time or in the subsequent period, and the criminal case against Roin Shavadze was started only on drug charges under Article 260. Suspicions of espionage were not confirmed within the current investigation, either.

The prosecutor’s office started the criminal prosecution against the defendants under articles of the premeditated murder of a helpless person, intentional illegal detention, and exceeding official authority. The prosecution requests imprisonment as a punitive measure against all the accused.