COMMENTARY ON THE REPORT OF EXAMINATION AND AUTOPSY OF THE CORPSE OF ILIA CHAVCHAVADZE

Abstract

On August 30, 1907, at about 12:00, near the village of Tsitsamuri (Tsitsamuri-Saguramo section) four armed men: Ivane (Vano) Inashvili, Gigola (Gigla) Berbichashvili, Gigola (Gigo) Modzghvrishvili and Pavle Phshavlishvili (Aphtsiauri) blocked the path of the carriage of Ilia Chavchavadze and his wife Olgha Guramishvili traveling from Tbilisi to Saguramo. Two other terrorists, Giorgi (Loma) Khizanishvili and Lado Pheiqrishvili (Chirikashvili) were positioned in the forest, on a hill, to the right side of the road, watching the movement of Ilia Chavchavadze’s the carriage. Another terrorist Ilia Chavchavadze’s coachman Thevdore
(Thedo) Labauri was sitting on the top seat of the carriage. His job was to stop the carriage. Iakob Bitharishvili (Bitharashvili) the bodyguard of Ilia Chavchavadze was killed along with him. Ilia Chavchavadze’s wife Olgha Guramishvili was seriously
wounded in the head by a rifle buttstock strike.
The Corpse of Ilia Chavchavadze was transported from the crime scene to Saguramo. On August 31, 1907, the doctor of Dusheti Mazra (subdistrict) Abel Iashvili examined the corpse, made an autopsy and drew up a corresponding act (report). The autopsy was attended by the investigator of the Dusheti Mazra V.E. Dilevsky, witnesses: Svimon Chikhashvili and Vasil Namoradze, peasants from the village of Guramiantkari. Russian Original and Georgian translation of the examination and autopsy act are presented to the reader.
The examination and autopsy act of the corpse of Ilia Chavchavadze should have been extremely noteworthy for investigation. This didn’t happen for number of reasons. N. F. Ilyashenko, the investigator of the case, should have noticed that the results of corpse examination, committed by doctor Abel Iashvili, and conclusion made by the same doctor contradicted each other. The investigator should have realized that neither of four terrorists, that came out of the forest and stopped the carriage, actually killed Ilia. They began to chase Iakob Bitharishvili, who jumped down from the top seat of the carriage, and eventually killed him. As soon as the carriage stopped, Ilia stood up. At this very moment a killer lying in an ambush in a forest behind the carriage at the left side of the road made a single shot. The bullet entered Ilia’s body through the left ribs, pierced the heart and exited through the chest between the left and right nipples. Next, we present the reader with comments on the above mentioned act.