TBILISI, June 5 – A teenage schoolboy detained after a fatal stabbing in Rustavi says he was defending himself from an attempted sexual assault, according to claims by his family cited by Rezonansi.
The first report, citing Info Rustavi, said a 16-year-old boy had been detained after a 40-year-old man was fatally wounded with a sharp object on Gareji Street following an argument. Georgia’s Interior Ministry said the minor was detained and that the investigation is being conducted under Article 108 of the Criminal Code, intentional murder.
A later report by Rezonansi, citing TV Pirveli, gave a different and more detailed account. It said the detained boy is 15 and that the dead man was about 50. According to that report, the man had arrived from Azerbaijan several days earlier, had rented an apartment in Rustavi and was doing renovation work, including in villages of Gardabani municipality.
The family of the detained minor told TV Pirveli that the man met the boy in the village of Nazarlo and offered him paid work. After work in the village of Kesalo, the man allegedly invited the boy to his rented apartment in Rustavi for lunch, locked the door and tried to sexually assault him.
The family says the boy used a kitchen knife in self-defense.
“As soon as he took the child, he locked the door and started violence, he was taking off his clothes and pulling him,” a family member said, according to Rezonansi. The family member said the boy saw a kitchen knife on the table and swung it in self-defense.
The same relative claimed the man continued trying to assault the boy even after being wounded.
The boy later turned himself in to police, after first telling his family what had happened, according to the report. The family says he did not know the man had died.
“He should not have been detained, not even for one day,” a family member said. “For what? Because he saved himself?”
According to the family, the boy was a school student who also worked on renovation jobs to earn money and help his family. They say he accepted the man’s offer because he wanted to work and learn a trade.
Rezonansi reported that investigative actions at the rented apartment in Rustavi have been completed and that investigators sealed the apartment. The detained minor has been transferred to a detention facility and is awaiting formal charges, according to the report.
(Article has been updated.)
