Telavi District Court Judge Mamuka Tsiklauri sentenced Ali Sadigov, accused of murdering 14-year-old Aitaj Shakhmarova, to life imprisonment.

"Now I feel as if my daughter is alive. It was a very fair decision. He deserves life imprisonment. He killed my daughter on purpose. I looked him in the eyes and told him that he is not a man because he raised his hand against a woman and killed her. I did not know that my daughter was married. I was going to arrive soon, and this happened. Everyone who is guilty of this case should be punished," Aitaj Shakhmarova's father, Isa Shakhmarova, told journalists.

Twenty-six-year-old Ali Sadigov, a resident of Lambalo village in the Sagarejo municipality, killed 14-year-old Aitaj Shakhmarova on October 6, 2023, with a shot from a firearm.

A few months before the murder, Sadigov abducted Aitaj Shakhmarova, who was a student in the 8th grade at the public school in the village of Karabulakh, Dmanisi municipality, for the purpose of forced marriage. The minor girl managed to escape, but her family members brought her back to Lambalo. According to the case file, Ali Sadigov raped the minor.

Sadigov was accused under Article 4 of the Criminal Code: premeditated murder committed against a minor family member on the basis of gender; illegal deprivation of liberty for an offender with prior knowledge of a minor; rape committed using the helplessness of the victim against a minor family member; illegal possession of firearms and ammunition.

A total of 5 people were arrested in the case of Aitaj Shakhmarova, including the mother and uncle of the murdered girl. The prosecutor's office accuses them of forcing the marriage and not reporting the crime. Before the arrest, the mother said that she was afraid of Sadigov because he threatened to kill her if she took the girl away, and according to the investigation materials, she liked Sadigov as a son-in-law because he was wealthy.

The prosecutor's office did not arrest the director of the Zemo Karabulakhi public school, Hamlet Ismailov, who knew about the girl's abduction and forced marriage but did nothing to protect her.

From 2014 to 2023, more than 200 women were killed in Georgia, including 24 last year.

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