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One of Georgia’s most prominent transgender women, Kesaria Abramidze, 37, was killed in her Tbilisi home just a day after the country passed a major anti-LGBT bill, BBC reports on September 19th. Local authorities said she was fatally stabbed in her apartment on Wednesday, September 18th.

The Interior Ministry is investigating the case as a “premeditated murder with particular cruelty and aggravating circumstances on gender grounds”. A 26-year-old man, reportedly known to Abramidze, has been arrested. The killing has shocked the small South Caucasian nation.

Pro-EU President Salome Zurabishvili, in conflict with the government, condemned the “horrific murder” in a Facebook post. She urged that “this tragedy should be a wake-up call for Georgian society”.

^{Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili has attended the funeral of Kesaria Abramidze. Photo}

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Abramidze became the first person in Georgia to openly identify as transgender. In 2018, she represented her country in the Miss Trans Star International Contest.

BBC, Al Jazeera, OC Media and agencies