MIA Senior Official in Hospital with Gunshot Wound

Vasil Sanodze, head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs’ (MIA) internal investigations unit, was hospitalized with a gunshot wound overnight on May 3.

Shota Khizanishvili, head of the Interior Ministry’s administration, said Sanodze accidentally shot himself in his house.

Reports say that Sanodze has suffered a gunshot wound to the head, triggering speculation in the media sources that it could have been a failed suicide attempt.

Khizanishvili, however, strongly rejected those speculations as “utter nonsense.” “It was an accident,” he told Civil.ge.
 
Sanodze first came into public attention in early 2004 when President Saakashvili tasked him to monitor flaw of goods and taxes in port of Batumi in Adjara Autonomous Republic, which at the time was ruled by Aslan Abashidze.

In 2006, when he already served as head of MIA’s internal investigations unit, Sanodze, along with some other senior MIA officials, became embroiled in a murder scandal of Sandro Girgvliani. He was suspended from office pending the investigation into the Girgvliani case, but Sanodze later resumed performing his duties in MIA.

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