fathers for truth

Court rules in favour of Georgian security service over teen’s death in Pankisi

Tbilisi City Court has ruled that the Georgian State Security Service (SSG) did not violate the presumption of innocence of 19-year-old Temirlan Machalikashvili, who was fatally shot in late 2017 during an anti-terror sweep in Georgia’s Pankisi Valley. Machalikashvili’s family, represented by local rights group the Human Rights Education and Monitoring Centre (EMC), argued that public statements made by the SSG in December 2017 and January 2018 portrayed Machalikashvili as having been confi