Sergo Shubitidze, a former investigator arrested on charges of perjury in the case of a 23-year-old programmer, Tamar Bachaliashvili, who died in July 2020, was released from prison.
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‘’It was a less severe crime, the law provided for his release. He has no prior record and is the sole breadwinner of a family with three children. He was put on probation, imprisonment would be excessive,’’ says Shubitidze’s lawyer.
In April, Sergo Shubitidze gave an interview to TV Formula, where he said that he does not believe the version of suicide by 23-year-old Tamar Bachaliashvili and suspects that the case was fabricated. As one of the circumstances corroborating this suspicion, he recounted how investigator Elguja Apuashvili brought Tamar Bachaliashvili’s unsealed phone to him in the office and instructed him to re-seal it. This line of events assumes that after removing the phone from the deceased woman’s car, it had been turned on and data from before July 18 was erased. Elguja Apuashvili, who still works in Tetritskaro police, told Formula that a long time has passed since the case and he does not remember handing an unsealed phone to Shubitidze.
After giving the interview, Sergo Shubitidze resigned from the post of chief investigator of the investigative division of the Kvemo Kartli Police Department. He was arrested soon after. The prosecutor's office accused him of giving false testimony. After his arrest, Shubitidze confessed to the crime.
Tamar Bachaliashvili disappeared on July 18, 2020. On July 22, her body was found in her own car parked in the vicinity of the village of Matsukani in Tetritskaro municipality.
The investigation into the case was launched under articles of illegal deprivation of liberty and driving to suicide, but it was ended after five months due to the lack of signs of crime. The General Prosecutor's Office announced that Tamar Bachaliashvili committed suicide. The autopsy report established drug overdose as the cause of death. The family and friends denied the version of suicide from the beginning and assumed that Tamar Bachaliashvili was killed somewhere else and the car was later moved to the territory of Matsevani. Bachaliashvili's family and lawyers believe that the information made public by Sergo Shubitidze was the basis for renewing the investigation.
