Eight convicted for deadly electrocution incident in Tbilisi killing 13-year-old

Tbilisi city court on Monday convicted eight of nine suspects in the deadly 2022 electroduction incident in a fountain of Tbilisi’s central Vake Park that killed a 13-year-old and left two other minors injured during their attempts to retrieve a ball. 

Only one electric welder was found innocent, while another was sentenced to four years in prison for violation of safety rules during their works in the fountain. 

Tbilisi City Court sentenced Lasha Purtskhvanidze, the head of Green Service+, a  contractor company of Tbilisi City Hall for the renovation works in the park, to six years in prison for professional neglect and forgery of official documents, and Giorgi Vakhtangashvili, the Deputy Chair of the Environmental Protection Service in the City Hall, to three years for professional neglect.

Other convicts faced three to three and six years in prison for incitement to forgery and professional neglect. 

The opposition was demanding the resignation of Kakha Kaladze, the Tbilisi mayor, following the incident, claiming he must have been held accountable for the minor’s death.