“Of course not,” said Giorgy Sokhadze defiantly in response to a question in Tbilisi city court last week. The judge’s question was clear and direct: “Do you admit your guilt in a premeditated murder, committed by a group, on the grounds of ethnic hatred?”
These are the charges against Sokhadze, 23, and his co-defendant, Avtandil Kandelakishvili, 20. With shaven heads and necks covered in ultra-nationalist tattoos, the two young men seemed determined to challenge the audience at the opening session of the trial into the murder of activist Vitali Safarov in September last year.
Vitali, 25, was a programme coordinator at a respected local NGO, the Centre for Participation and Development, which works to fight intolerance and xenophobia in Georgia. An incredibly warm and caring person, Vitali was an inspiring mentor to the dozens of children whom he taught human rights, inter-cultural dialogue and non-discrimination at summer camps. In a recent interview to Sova News, Vitali’s mother Marina Alanakyan said that children from the summer camps sent him letters saying “We want to be like you”. In his other job as a case manager at the Tbilisi Shelter for human rights defenders, Vitali became a dear friend to the many activists around the world who visit the shelter for rest and rehabilitation.
