Representatives of the Georgian human rights organization Center for Social Justice appealed to the country's Special Investigation Service with a request to resume the investigation into the case of 19-year-old Chechen-Kist Temirlan Machalikashvili. He was killed by security forces during a special operation in the Pankisi Gorge.

Human rights activists pointed to a number of violations on the part of the investigation and the prosecutor's office, which could have been intentional. This complicated the subsequent decision by the European Court of Human Rights.

At the beginning of the year, the ECHR recognized that the Georgian authorities did not ensure a thorough investigation into the death of Temirlan Machalikashvili. According to the court decision, the relatives of the deceased must be paid 25 thousand euros as compensation for moral damage.

In 2017, security forces carried out a special operation in the Pankisi Gorge, during which Temirlan Machalikashvili was mortally wounded. According to the security service, the young man tried to throw a grenade at the security forces, so the special forces shot at him. However, the victim's relatives denied this version.