Back from the dead - 'murder victim' leaves police with red faces

20 December, 2007, 06:10

A 23-year-old man has returned home to the sleepy Georgian village of Jurgaani months after another local villager was been convicted of his murder. The case has drawn strong condemnation from the Georgian human rights ombudsman.

Lasha Chopikashvili disappeared in June shortly after quarrelling with Aleksey Bakhutov. The village suspected that Bakhutov had murdered the young man.

He was arrested and subsequently confessed to the killing. The supposed victim, however, had left the village without telling a soul, and spent the summer months herding sheep in remote summer pastures high in the Caucasus mountains.

Lali Chopikashvili, Lasha’s mother says her son told her he had an argument with Bakhutov over a horse.

“Bakhutov had a stick in his hand as he asked my son for a cigarette. Lasha turned to him and at that moment heard a noise as though something were close to his ear. He doesn't remember anything after that. When he regained consciousness, he was on the ground and all wet. He went home, changed his clothes and then left for mountains. He thought Bakhutov would kill him if he stayed. That's his story,” she said.

The police tried to make Bakhutov show them where he buried the body. After a fruitless search, they assumed it had been washed away by the river.

Not only did Bakhutov confess to killing Chopikashvili, he also implicated three local youths, telling police they'd helped him conceal the body. They were remanded in custody and duly confessed to disposing of a dead body that did not exist.

The mother of one of the youngsters says “They were forced to confess to the crime. They said they'd helped Bakhutov get rid of the body”.

“Of course it wasn't true in reality, but the boys said they could not stay in prison any more. They spent five months there,” she said. 

The youths were held in custody even after Chopikashvili returned to the village, and their convictions for concealing his body have not been quashed.

Bakhutov remains behind bars, and may be re-charged – this time with attempted murder.

“There is a serious likelihood that the police applied torture to get the evidence they wanted We demand that the policemen responsible be punished, as well as the judge, who knew that the man Bakhutov was convicted of killing was alive, but still sentenced three people for concealing the dead body,” said Giori Giorgadze, Deputy Ombudsman.

Although with Chopikashvili alive and well, the real victim in this case appears to be Bakhutov. He was convicted, not just for a crime he did not commit, but for a crime that never even took place.