TORONTO - Lela Tabidze will say a final goodbye this weekend to her daughter, Mariam Makhniashvili.
But her husband most likely won’t be at her side when their teenager, whose mysterious disappearance gripped the city for more than two years, is laid to rest.
“I feel for him,” Calvin Barry, Vakhtang Makhniashvili’s lawyer, said Friday.
As a parent himself, Barry said he can only imagine how heartbreaking it must be for the father not to be allowed to attend his daughter’s funeral or to be there to comfort his wife and son during such an emotional time.
Vakhtang is currently serving a six-year prison sentence at Milhaven penitentiary for stabbing three people in two separate incidents in the wake of Mariam’s disappearance.
Barry said he had obtained pre-approval for his client to attend the funeral Saturday, but the warden “nixed” the day-pass Thursday.
“I was kind of surprised and taken aback,” Barry said, explaining it’s not uncommon for prisoners to be released for the day to attend a loved one’s funeral.
Based on psychiatric assessments submitted during Vakhtang’s trial, the warden concluded his release could pose a risk to the public, Barry said.
He is appealing the decision and hoping the warden has a change of heart.
“But we’re running out of time,” Barry said.
Mariam vanished after walking to Forest Hill Collegiate with her younger brother George in September 2009, just a few months after the siblings emigrated from the Republic of Georgia to be reunited with their parents.
The 17-year-old’s disappearance sparked a massive search.
Police confirmed March 9 that human remains found a week earlier on the edge of the Don Valley Golf Course near Yonge St. and Hwy. 401. were Mariam.
It’s believed Mariam fell to her death from an overpass.
Toronto Police have said foul play is not suspected at this time.
Although there was some confusion about whether or not the funeral would be private, Barry said it will be open to the public.
Visitation will be held Friday from 2-4 p.m. at Newbigging Funeral Home, 733 Mt. Pleasant Rd.
Mariam’s funeral will be on Saturday at 1 p.m. at the same location.
http://www.torontosun.com/2012/03/23/warden-denies-mariams-dad-release-for-funeral
