On 2 June, the General Prosecutor's Office of Georgia has appealed to the relevant US authorities for legal assistance in the high-profile case of the murder of the Toradze family, reported georgiatoday.
“Tamar Toradze, sister of the ‘Toradze Brothers’, is a citizen of America. Considering this, the General Prosecutor's Office of Georgia has appealed to the relevant authorities of the United States for legal assistance,” read the statement.
The Toradze family tragedy took place back in 1992. Based on the available information, the Toradze brothers were involved in the conflict with the unofficial military organization ‘Mkhedrioni.’ In March 1992, 'Mkhedrioni' members opened fire to the Toradze family, killing five brothers and their parents. Two remaining members of the family, brothers Zaza and Paata, survived, yet disappeared. Since then, they have been reported missing. The murder was witnessed by Toradze's minor sister Tamar Toradze, who currently lives in the United States. She demands that the location of her two brothers be disclosed and the perpetrators be punished.
One of the involved suspects in the Toradze case, is the founder and shareholder of Mtavari Arkhi TV Giorgi Rurua, who according to the opposition in Georgia is considered a political prisoner in the country and who’s release the opposition requests in order to uphold the 8 March agreement (Caucasus Watch reported).
On 14 May, Tamar Toradze addressed the US Senator Jim Risch with an open letter, urging him not to call Giorgi Rurua a "political prisoner" and facilitate an investigation against him. “I would like to bring to your attention that Giorgi (Zhorika) Rurua is actually a murderer and former crime boss. On 3 March 1992, Giorgi Rurua and his criminal gang shot and killed my brother Lasha, as well as my mother and father, in their car as they were returning from hospital. Next, they surrounded our house and shot and killed my two brothers, Kakha and Imedo, in front of my sisters who were children at the time. After a while, Giorgi Rurua and his gang found and kidnapped my older brother Zaza. Two years after this tragedy, they also kidnapped my younger brother Paata,” the letter emphasized.
The letter further elaborated that Rurua fled Georgia in 1995 after a failed terrorist attack on former President Eduard Shevardnadze, was extradited back to Georgia and sentenced to prison. He was released when former President Mikhaeil Saakashvili took power in 2003 and appointed Rurua’s brother as the Minister of Culture in the country. “As a citizen of the United States, I urge you to call on the Government of Georgia to investigate the heinous crimes committed by the murderer Giorgi Rurua against my family and many other Georgian families and to sentence him to the appropriate punishment, rather than recognizing him as a political prisoner and freeing him!” the letter concluded.
Toradze was not the first person to blame Rurua over his alleged criminal past. On 20 March, the sister of the ‘Mkhedrioni’ member Zaza Vephkhvadze (who was killed in 1993) Maia Vephkhvadze published a post against Rurua on social media, blaming him for the murder of her 19-year-old son and her brother. The post said that Rurua was the leader of the criminal group ‘Veris Sadzmo’ supported by Jaba Ioseliani, who was the founder of the criminal military organization ‘Mkhedrioni’. “He, with the support of his criminal friends, has to take responsibility for several murders,” Vephkhavdze claimed.
