Investigator summoned for contradicting suicide version in high-profile 2020 death of IT professional

Investigator Sergo Shubitidze was on Tuesday summoned for interrogation in Tbilisi prosecutor’s office following his interview with the domestic, opposition-minded Formula channel last week in which he contradicted an official conclusion on suicide in the high-proifile case of death of IT professional Tamar Bachaliashvili in 2020. 

In his comments the former investigator in the specific case, claimed he did not trust the version of suicide after seeing Bachaliashvili’s body, after the law enforcement officers found her in a forest in western Georgia after a five-day search, adding he did not wish to “carry the burden alone”. 

The prosecutor’s office said it launched investigation for falsifying of evidence following the claims and stressed Shubitidze had interrogated only three witness out of 600 and conducted a minor work in contrast with the about 1,000 investigative procedures performed by the office before releasing its conclusion on suicide in December 2020. 

Bachaliashvili’s family claims the 23-year-old was “murdered” following her connections with unidentified, “dangerous people ” and coming across with classified information.