Two teenage girls, Nia Imnadze and Anastasia Beruashvili, were arrested late on August 5 as the prosecution further expanded the circle of minors implicated in the high-profile murder case of 28-year-old tutor Giga Avaliani, who died after spending three weeks in a coma following an assault near his apartment block in Tbilisi in October 2025.
Imnadze, reportedly 16, was arrested at her family’s apartment in a highly emotional scene. In a video captured by her lawyer, her parents are seen verbally confronting police officers as they dispute the allegations against their daughter, while officers said they were acting on a court order. Imnadze was reportedly hospitalized shortly afterward and transferred to a temporary detention cell the following afternoon.
Imnadze and Beruashvili are reportedly the girlfriends of Aleksandre Gabashvili and Giorgi Rikadze, respectively, two of the main defendants in Avaliani’s case, who were sentenced in April to 14 years in prison each after being found guilty of “intentional infliction of serious harm to health resulting in death.” As they were minors at the time of the crime, their sentences were automatically reduced to ten years and six months.
According to media reports, Imnadze faces a charge of “abetting intentional infliction of serious harm to health by a group” under Article 25-117 of Georgia’s Criminal Code. Avaliani’s family has long identified Imnadze, who was his pupil, as one of the central figures in the case, alleging that she encouraged her boyfriend to assault him.
Beruashvili, meanwhile, faces a charge of “failure to report a particularly serious crime” under Article 376.
Five minors in the case have already been sentenced to multiple years in prison, while several more, including the son of former Deputy Interior Minister Merab Malania, remain on trial. The widening of the prosecution follows months-long efforts by Avaliani’s mother, Eka Kupatadze, to hold everyone she believes responsible for her son’s death accountable.
“Georgia has won another battle against the murderers of Giga Avaliani, a healthy, innocent, genius young doctor!” Kupatadze wrote on Facebook following the latest arrests.
Both girls’ families have reportedly rejected the allegations, while their lawyers have described the charges as “absurd.”
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