The socially vulnerable J.A. was accused of committing a particularly serious crime under Article 108 of the Criminal Code (intentional murder). Since the case was to be tried by a jury, Nika Gujabidze, a public lawyer of the LEPL Legal Aid Service(LAS), was involved in the case.
He found out that his client, J.A., lived in a rented room in Rustavi with his mother and wife, in a 9 square meter apartment. The family was registered in the Unified Database of Socially Vulnerable Persons and received free food from the canteen. After reviewing the case materials and communicating with the beneficiary, the lawyer learned that J.A. did not commit the murder of his friend, I.G., and since he had been convicted several times in the past, he was accused of killing his best friend. In addition, according to the investigation, I.G. was last seen drinking alcohol at J.A.'s house with N.S. and J.A.
J.A. did not deny this either and from the very beginning provided the investigation with the information he possessed. Approximately 8 days later, I.G. was found murdered in the Gardabani area, and J.A. had no contact with Gardabani. Nevertheless, the police officers arrested J.A. and charged him with premeditated murder of I.G. Before officially detaining him, the police officers took J.A. and his companions N.S., S.S., V.S. to the police station against their will, without any grounds, where they were not allowed to communicate with the outside world, receive food or water for about a day and a half.
The goal of the police was to get a confession from J.A., or to implicate N.S. and accuse him of murder, since they had a case to solve. J.A. did not implicate himself for a crime he did not commit, and at the same time, he did not implicate anyone else, since he did not witness anything. In May 2024, Sulkhan Komakhidze, the head of the Eastern Georgia Bureau of Particularly Important Cases of the Legal Aid Service, and later, lawyer Mariam Tabatadze, became involved in the case.
The defense conducted a number of investigative and procedural actions in the case, which proved that on April 20 and 21, 2024 (the day of the murder), J.A. was at home, passed out due to excessive drinking, and slept through the night. Based on the investigation of the case and the evidence found, the Legal Aid Service attorneys convinced the jury that J.A. did not kill his friend.
He was not at the scene of the crime on the day of the murder. As of today, the Special Investigation Service is investigating the mistreatment of J.A. and N.S. by police officers, but a final decision has not yet been made. After 8 days of deliberation, on November 1, 2024, the jury unanimously, with 12 votes to 0, found J.A. not guilty of premeditated murder.
With the help of the lawyers of the Legal Aid Legal Service, another innocent person was acquitted and escaped 10 to 15 years of imprisonment. We congratulate Sulkhan Komakhidze, Nika Gujabidze and Mariam Tabatadze on this achievement and wish them success in their future endeavors