(Tbilisi, December 15, 2002. Civil Georgia) – Georgian Interior Minister said on December 14 that three persons suspected in abduction of Sadi Sharifov, father of the Russian company LUKOil’s vice-president, were arrested.
Narchemashvili said at the special briefing that all of them pled guilty. Kidnap suspects are Georgian citizens. Narchemashvili did not rule out that the citizens of other country also might be involved in the case.
Sadi Sharfov’s dead body was found on December 12. He was kidnapped on December 1 from his house in Pantiani village, Kvemo Kartli, region in southern Georgia.
Interior Minister said that the abduction of Sharifov did not aim at receiving ransom. “Criminals attacked the Sharifovs family just for robbery. They did not intend to kidnap Sadi Sharifov initially, but than decided to take him as a security guarantee,” Koba Narchemashvili told the reporters.
Georgian authorities supposed that the abduction of Sharifov, which is ethnic Azerbaijani, could aim at tensions between the Georgian and the Azeri population of the country.
Koba Narchemashvili said that in Kvemo Kartli, where Azeri minority lives, operates a group of people aiming to undermine the stability in the region.
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