“I want to appeal to the public to stop bullying and verbally abusing my underage client and his family members. There is neither direct nor indirect evidence of any kind in the case that would substantiate the charges brought,” said Giorgi Gamkhitashvili, the lawyer of underage Demetre Chikovani, who is charged with intentional grievous bodily harm committed by a group in the case of the death of teacher Giga Avaliani, before the start of the court hearing.

According to the lawyer, the charge is absurd, and he is calling on the prosecution and the injured party to make the case materials public.

“I want to appeal to the public to stop bullying and verbally abusing my underage client and his family members. The public does not know the criminal case, does not know its details, and therefore cannot make a proper legal assessment. Moreover, I will say that those who do know this criminal case deliberately fail to make a correct legal assessment. Accordingly, I urge everyone to refrain from insults and bullying.

There is neither direct nor indirect evidence of any kind in the case to confirm the charge brought [against Demetre Chikovani]. I will say frankly that this is complete absurdity. I cannot speak about the details, but consider this: while there are calls from the injured side to the public to stand by them and to have D.C. convicted of a particularly serious crime, why are the criminal case materials not shown to the public? Why is the prosecution hiding them? Why is the injured party hiding them? Bring them into the open — we have nothing to hide. Bring them out and present the evidence publicly,” Giorgi Gamkhitashvili said.

For reference, in the case of the death of Giga Avaliani, law enforcement officers have detained a total of four individuals. One of them, Aleksandre Gabashvili, has been charged under Article 117, Part 2 of the Criminal Code of Georgia, which refers to intentional grievous bodily harm resulting in death. Giorgi Rikadze and two other minors were charged under Article 376, Part 1 of the Criminal Code, which concerns failure to report a crime by a person who is aware that a serious crime is being prepared or has been committed.

According to available information, in the case of the murder of the young teacher Giga Avaliani, the charges against two of the four detained minors were aggravated. The case concerns D.C. and A.N., whom the prosecution initially accused of failure to report a crime. The investigation now accuses D.C. of intentional grievous bodily harm committed by a group. As for A.N., who had initially been charged with failure to report a serious crime, the prosecution has now brought charges for failure to report a particularly serious crime — a more serious offense punishable by imprisonment for a term of three to seven years.