NGOs Condemn Murder Attempt of Transgender Woman
TBILISI – Non-governmental Organizations (NGOs) of Georgia condemn murder attempt of a transgender woman, 32, who was stabbed in the neck and brutally beaten reportedly by two men in Ortachala region of Tbilisi on Friday.
The victim’s health condition is extremely poor and still stays at the hospital. According to media, transgender has multiple injuries in the area of her neck and her facial bones are also broken.
An investigation is in progress under article 19-108 of the Criminal Code for attempted premeditated murder. The NGOs call on the police to carry out timely and effective investigation.
The NGOs say this is not the first case of physical abuse or discrimination of LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) persons, saying the state has inefficient policy towards the homo /bi/ transphobic crimes.
“Fundamental defects in the justice system in this regard and non-existence of equality-based policies, created an environment of impunity in the society and transformed LGBT community as the most marginalized social group,” the statement of the NGOs reads.
The NGOs held a protest rally - 'Stop transphobia' at the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Georgia (MIA) on Sunday, demanding the effective investigation of the case, punishment of the attackers by the relevant and applicable law and carrying out effective measures by the government in the direction of hate crime prevention.
Public Defender, Ucha Nanuashvili also commented on the incident. The Ombudsman underlined that investigation of alleged hate crimes is one of the priorities for his office.
According to Nanuashvili, a number of cases are currently being studied in the Public Defender’s Office, which may include discriminatory motive on various protected grounds.
“Unfortunately, in most cases, alleged hate motive is not considered during the investigation and it is ambiguous what kind of investigative actions are carried out in order to identify such a motive,” Nanuashvili’s statement reads.
The Ombudsman calls on the government to introduce preventing mechanism in order to avoid similar cases in the future.
Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) of Georgia released a statement last night, saying a man was arrested in Rustavi, in relation to the case.
According to MIA, the man, 30, who has been on probation, pleaded guilty.
In November, 2014, a transgender woman Sabi Beriani, 23, was murdered and set on fire in her own apartment. Tbilisi city court found her attacker not guilty in this case but ordered him four years in prison for beating another transgender the same evening.
Photo: NGOs Protest rally- ‘Stop transphobia’ was held at the Ministry of Internal Affairs on Sunday
Source: dfwatch.net
By Thea Morrison