Georgia Mourns Late PM, Gori Blast Victims

Zurab Zhvania will be buried on Sunday at the Didube cemetery, resting place of  many other prominent Georgian public figures.

On February 5-6 Georgia mourns its late Prime Minister Zurab Zhvania and the three policemen who fell victim to a blast in the central Georgian town of Gori earlier this week. Meanwhile, news broke late on February 4 that Giorgi Khelashvili, an official from the President’s Administration, committed suicide – an accident, officials say, which has no links with the death of Zurab Zhvania.

Delegations from foreign countries started to arrive in Tbilisi late on February 5 to attend the funeral of Zurab Zhvania on Sunday. His body was moved from his mother’s home to the Holy Trinity Cathedral late on February 5.

On February 5, Deputy General Prosecutor Giorgi Janashia also briefed the public regarding some details of the investigation into Zurab Zhvania’s death. He once again confirmed the official version of the tragic accident, saying that is was caused by a faulty Iranian-made heating device that resulted in a concentration of a carbon monoxide (CO) which poisoned Zurab Zhvania and another official, Raul Usupov, whom the Prime Minister was visiting.

Giorgi Janashia also said that dozens of people, including Zhvania’s bodyguards, were interrogated. He said that the investigators could reveal that the Prime Minister talked with an unknown person on his mobile phone at approximately at 1:20 am local time on February 3. The Deputy General Prosecutor also said that law enforcers are searching for that person. The corpse of Zurab Zhvania was found by his bodyguard on February 3 at 4:30 am local time.

But the Georgia press has already cast doubts regarding the official reports regarding Zhvania’s death. On February 5, two newspapers, 24 Hours and Rezonansi, wrote that it is strange when the only version put forward from the very beginning by the Georgian officials was “a tragic accident,” especially when the case involves a politician and a statesman who had was of huge importance for the country.

Meanwhile, another Georgian government official, Giorgi Khelashvili, was found dead from a gunshot wound in his apartment late on February 4. Police officials say that it was a suicide. Khelashvili, 32, served in the state clemency commission of the Georgian President’s Administration. Officials ruled out any possible link between the latter accident and the death of the Prime Minister. Official also say that personal motives are most likely behind the suicide.

Speculations circulate in Georgia that the  death of the PM and the Gori Blast might be  links in the same chain.

Georgia experienced another tragedy earlier this week when a blast in the central Georgian town of Gori killed three policemen and injured at least 27 other persons. No details of the investigation of this incident, which officials described as a terrorist act masterminded by the “anti-peace forces” and “enemies of Georgia,” have been released.

On February 5, Georgian Defense Minister Irakli Okruashvili, who was attending the funeral of the three policemen killed in the Gori blast, told reporters that several real versions are being pinpointed by the investigation at the moment and that more details will be known in the next few days. “We will punish those behind this blast,” he added.