Tbilisi City Court sent the police investigator charged with forcing the confession from the teen, 15, to pretrial detention. The teen succumbed to his injuries on December 17, following the attempted suicide on December 12.
The Court made its ruling in a hospital where the said investigator was transferred for health related issues soon after the news of the teen’s death broke on Tuesday.
The State Inspector’s Service – a newly established body mandated to investigate crimes committed by police and public officials – took over the case on December 13, and charged the police investigator.
Additional disclosures
On December 19, the Prosecutor’s Office stated that the police investigator failed to follow the procedures as envisaged by the Juvenile Justice Code. After initially failing to obtain the teen’s confession, as the Prosecutor’s Office noted, the police investigator confronted the witnesses that “made minors experience undue psychological stress.” The confrontation during witness interrogation is expressly forbidden by the Juvenile Code.
Speaking at news-briefing of December 19, Londa Toloraia, the State Inspector, also said that the charged “inspector … confronted the teen with the school administration representative, as well as other minors” against the teen so that to obtain his confession. “The minors… experienced very strong emotional stress,” Toloraia added.
Londa Toloraia further added that “the investigator … told [the teen] that in case he fails to confess his crime, his brother, who is studying at the military academy, will have problems.”
Toloraia confirmed earlier reports by the teens mother, that while the interrogation was ongoing on December 11, the teen was left without the parental supervision for “approximately 20 minutes” – another breach of juvenile interrogation procedures. The State Inspector said the police explained that they asked the boy’s mother to “bring some additional data [documents] from their house”.
The State Inspector said the teen’s initial interrogation had lasted for six-and-a-half hours, until 23:30. She also noted that since the police unit has no special rooms for minor investigation, the interrogation took place in a common room, in the presence of other policemen.
The defense lawyer of the charged police investigator said she denies charges against her.
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