Sergo Tetradze, a veteran of the Abkhazian War and former high-ranking officer of the Georgian Air Force, was taken from his home on September 17, 2011, allegedly by representatives of the military police, who later conducted a search of his residence. Judge Giorgi Goginashvili ordered his pre-trial detention. When Tetradze appeared in court, he had visible injuries on his face. Years later, the judge commented, “If a defendant had bruises on his face, what could a judge do? Nothing.”

A week later, his family was informed that Sergo Tetradze had died of a supposed heart attack in Gldani Prison. By early October, his wife had still not received the results of the forensic examination. Opposition figures and human rights organizations accused the Ministry of Defense leadership of his death and appealed to international organizations and embassies to help investigate what they described as the torture and murder of the veteran officer.

Protests demanding justice for Sergo Tetradze were held multiple times. On October 3, 2011, the youth wing of the political party Free Democrats gathered outside the Ministry of Corrections and Legal Assistance with signs reading “Democracy Means Answering Questions.” On October 22, demonstrators also protested outside the Ministry of Defense carrying banners that read “Veteran Sergo Tetradze Was Tortured to Death,” demanding the resignation and prosecution of Defense Minister Bacho Akhalaia.

These small-scale demonstrations yielded no immediate results. A new investigation began after the change of government and concluded in April 2018.

According to official findings, in 2011 Defense Minister Bacho Akhalaia, together with Deputy Head of the Military Police Department Megis Kardava and Prison No. 8 director Aleksandre Mukhadze, sought to obtain coerced confessions through torture to fabricate the existence of an alleged spy network. Retired Colonel Sergo Tetradze was arrested for this purpose and brutally beaten after refusing to confess. On September 23, 2011, during torture, he lost consciousness and died of acute cardiovascular failure.

The court sentenced Akhalaia, Kardava, and Mukhadze to nine years in prison.

In 2018, when the new verdict confirming Tetradze’s torture was issued, Judge Giorgi Goginashvili—the same judge who had ordered Tetradze’s detention in 2011—was appointed as a lifetime judge.