Former Investigator of Bachaliashvili Case, Sergo Shubitidze, Arrested on Charges of Perjury

On April 29, after Shubitidze's interview aired on TV Formula, the prosecutor's office initiated an investigation under the article of falsification of evidence. According to the prosecutor's office, during his interrogation as a witness in the court, Sergo Shubitidze reiterated the information he provided to the TV channel, which ‘’contained many lies and aimed to mislead Tamar Bachaliashvili's family, society, investigative agency, and the justice system.’’

“In an interview, as well as during court testimony, the defendant stated that after the discovery of Tamar Bachaliashvili’s body, he was the one who started the investigation of the case. It was established that the investigation into the disappearance of Tamar Bachaliashvili was launched on July 19, 2020, by the Tetritskaro regional division of the Kvemo Kartli Police Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. At that time, the defendant was not employed in the said police department at all, and according to the case files, it was determined that the investigation was started by investigator Jimsher Aptsiauri, and not by the defendant. He also stated that after the discovery of Bachaliashvili’s body, approximately at 16:00-16:30, investigator Elguja Apuashvili approached him and brought Bachaliashvili’s phone, which was not sealed in the evidence bag.  According to the defendant’s account, Elguja Apuashvili also handed him the evidence bag and told him he should seal the phone. By his account, the phone was in a clean state, which he then sealed and handed back to Apuashvili. He then testified that on July 23 or 24, he opened the bag sealed earlier by himself in order to examine the mobile phone and made an appropriate entry into the evidence log sheet.

The investigation determined that on July 22, 2020, between 13:35 and 19:20, the incident scene at the Matsevani village of Tetritskaro region and Tamar Bachaliashvili’s car were inspected. In the course of the investigation, among other items, forensic experts removed a mobile phone belonging to Bachaliashvili. According to the examination report of the scene of the incident, investigator Elguja Apuashvili did not participate in the examination. Moreover, the investigation of the scene was continuously recorded and photographed, and the footage clearly shows that the investigator Elguja Apuashvili does not participate in the inspection of the scene,” the prosecutor's office said.

As for Sergo Shubitidze's claim, as if Elguja Apuashvili handed him the mobile phone belonging to Tamar Bachaliashvili in an unsealed, clean, and stainless condition, according to the prosecutor's office, the photo and video footage of the scene of the incident proves that the mobile phone removed from the car was sealed on the spot following the appropriate procedure: “The phone was covered with fluids and maggots from the corpse, so after being placed by experts on a sheet of plaster on a special table, it was wrapped in fabric and sealed in a special package. Within the same sealed special package, without opening it, on July 23, 2020, Tamar Bachaliashvili's mobile phone was sent to the Forensic-Criminalistic Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, not by the defendant, but by another investigator, in order to take samples of traces on it. According to the letter of July 24, 2020, of the said department, it is clear that the investigator receives Tamar Bachaliashvili's mobile phone, sealed, along with three other packages of evidence. On the same day, the sealed phone is sent to the Levan Samkharauli National Forensic Bureau for expert analyses, from where, together with the expert report, it is returned to the investigative body on August 12, 2020. Between July 22 and August 12, 2020, the sealed bag containing the cellphone has not been opened by any investigator.”

According to the information from the prosecutor's office, an expert who took samples from the mobile phone belonging to Tamar Bachaliashvili on July 23, 2020, was interviewed as part of the investigation. As stated in the prosecutor's office, the expert confirmed that the mobile phone was sealed in a special package from the Forensic-Criminalistic Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and its integrity has not been broken.

“According to the testimony of the expert, upon opening the evidence bag, it was found that the mobile phone with a colorful case was placed in a white paper envelope, wrapped in a medical bandage, and there were maggots in the evidence bag. The expert's testimony is in full agreement with the photographic evidence of the expert's report, which proves that the mobile phone arrived to the expert in the state it was sealed in at the scene, and the seal has not been opened in anywhere in between - Had the special package used at scene been opened, it would have been impossible to restore its original condition. Also, it should be noted that the use of the seal mentioned by the defendant during the interview does not happen at all in the case of a special package - a special package is intended for sealing items and does not require a separate seal to be glued/taped,” says the prosecutor’s office.

According to the prosecution, based on the data requested from mobile operators, Sergo Shubitidze was in Rustavi until 16:46 on July 22, 2020, and at 16:48 he was already in Fonichala and was on his way to Tbilisi, where he stayed until 01:29 on July 23. “Therefore, at the time when Sergo Shubitidze claims Elguja Apuashvili brought him the mobile phone, the phone belonging to Tamar Bachaliashvili is at the scene of the incident, being removed from the car in the presence of investigators, experts, and a lawyer, and Sergo Shubitidze himself is in Tbilisi.”

According to the prosecutor's office, the information first voiced by Sergo Shubitidze during the interview, and then delivered to the court, as if Tamar Bachaliashvili's phone only contained information from the period after July 18, 2020, is false.

‘’The investigation confirmed that the defendant is giving false testimony to the court since the sealed mobile phone belonging to Tamar Bachaliashvili was not opened before it arrived at the Levan Samkharauli National Forensic Bureau. Accordingly, it was not examined by any investigator, including Sergo Shubitidze. The passcode of the device was not known. The experts of the Samkharauli Bureau were able to access the hard drive of the device only through a special program, as a result of which the information was extracted from the phone. The recovered information unequivocally proves that the data from the period prior to July 18, 2020, was present in Tamar Bachaliashvili's mobile phone.

In addition, the defendant claimed in a television interview and during his testimony in court that he interviewed the employees of the company where Tamar Bachaliashvili was employed. He was given predetermined questions to ask the witnesses. According to the defendant, he interviewed 4-6 employees of the company. In order to verify the said fact, the interview reports of the employees of the Zeg company were pulled from the case, upon which it was determined that none of them were filed by the defendant. Nevertheless, as part of the investigation, all 45 employees of the said company were re-interviewed, which confirmed that the defendant had no contact with any of them at any point. Therefore, in this instance as well, the defendant provided false testimony to the court,” stated the prosecutor's office.

Sergo Shubitidze was charged under Article 370, section 1 of the Criminal Code of Georgia, which implies obstructing justice by giving false testimony as a witness. The prosecutor's office applies to the Tbilisi City Court with a motion for imprisonment as a punitive measure.

Police Vice-Colonel Shubitidze, who was the chief investigator of the Kvemo Kartli Police Department, wrote a letter of resignation after the TV interview and withdrew from his post.

23-year-old programmer Tamar Bachaliashvili went missing on July 18, 2020. On July 22, her body was found in her car parked in the vicinity of Matsevani village of Tetritskaro municipality. The investigation into the case was launched under articles covering “illegal deprivation of liberty” and “driving to suicide”, but was stopped after five months due to the absence of signs of foul play. The General Prosecutor's Office announced that Tamar Bachaliashvili committed suicide. According to the expert opinion, the cause of death was drug intoxication. The family and lawyers denied the version of suicide from the beginning, they suspected that Tamar Bachaliashvili was killed elsewhere and the car was later moved to where it was eventually found. Bachaliashvili's family and lawyers believe that the information made public by Sergo Shubitidze is the basis for renewed investigation.