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News

23-02-2018

Statement of the State Security Service of Georgia

After the activation of the so called “Hot Line” mechanism by the State Security Service of Georgia, de-facto authorities declared that the primary cause of the death of Archil Tatunashvili, citizen of Georgia, who was illegally detained on 22nd of February, was a “heart attack (so-called infarction)”. On the request of the State Security Service of Georgia to allow Levan Samkharauli National Forensics Bureau experts to have an access on the ground to conduct the primary examination of the deceased, de facto authorities did not comply.

The State Security Service of Georgia principally demands the transfer of the deceased Archil Tatunashvili and the release of the detainees - Levan Kutashvili and Ioseb Pavliashvili in the nearest future.

The statement made by the de-facto authorities and the information disseminated by various open sources, that Archil Tatunashvili allegedly was cooperating with Georgian intelligence services and was participating in so-called genocide of Ossetian nation is fictitious and aims to misrepresent the facts.

The issue related to the death of Archil Tatunashvili and the illegal detention of Levan Kutashvili and Ioseb Pavliashvili, by the representatives of the State Security Service of Georgia will be put into agenda of the Incident Prevention and Response Mechanism (IPRM) format meeting planned for March 1, 2018 in village Ergneti.

According to our assessment, it is of a crucial importance to mobilize the attention of the international community at the highest possible level, in order to conduct in-depth and transparent investigation of the real cause of death of Tatunashvili. In this regard, on immediate basis the State Security Service of Georgia continues to provide various governmental agencies, as well as international organizations with all sort of available information.