Parents of late software developer Bachaliashvili demand renewed investigation into her death

The parents of late software developer Tamar Bachaliashvili are holding a protest outside the Prosecutor’s Office in capital Tbilisi, demanding that the investigation into their daughter’s death be reopened and conducted comprehensively.

Bachaliashvili’s mother, Teona Tamazashvili, said there are still unanswered questions surrounding the case and claimed that the investigation was not conducted fully.

“How long is this going to continue? How long will our children disappear and die under suspicious circumstances? A full investigation must be conducted and we must receive answers to our questions. The amount of uncertainty in this case is unimaginable,” Tamazashvili said.

She raised questions over blood traces allegedly found on shoes and the floor mats of the car, saying the family had not received satisfactory explanations about their origin. Tamazashvili also questioned the condition in which her daughter’s phone was returned to the family.

The family has announced that they will gather outside the Prosecutor’s Office every Monday and Thursday to demand a renewed investigation.

Twenty-three-year-old Tamar Bachaliashvili disappeared on July 18, 2020. Several days later, she was found dead inside her car in a forest in Tetritskaro.

According to the investigation, Bachaliashvili died by suicide, and the case was subsequently closed.

The family’s central position is that Tamar was murdered, not that she committed suicide.

Her father, Jumber Bachaliashvili, is now explicitly demanding that the case be reclassified as a murder investigation, saying the family believes they have facts and witnesses supporting that conclusion.

Jumber Bachaliashvili has said he believes Tamar had obtained or “broken” a file which, if made public, could have had major consequences. He has connected this to alleged call-centre activity and has raised questions about people who, in his view, could have known about or been interested in the information she possessed.

The family has also questioned why Tamar's laptop and memory card were not made available to them, arguing that these could contain information explaining what happened to her.