Georgian Parliament calls for new probe on death of former President Gamsakhurdia

Georgian Parliament calls for new probe on death of former President Gamsakhurdia

2011-02-22 22:56:13 GMT+7 (ICT)

TBILISI, GEORGIA (BNO NEWS) -- The Georgian parliament on Tuesday approved a resolution calling for a new probe on the death of former President Zviad Gamsakhurdia which was ruled as suicide seventeen years ago, the Civil Georgia news agency reported.

The resolution was passed based on a report by a parliamentary commission, chaired by Member of the Parliament Konstantine Gamsakhurdia, son of the late President which claims that the leader was murdered.

The commission studied the case and circumstances of the December 1993 death of Gamsakhurdia. Less than two years after he was ousted, the former president was found dead from a gunshot to the head in a remote village of western Georgian region of Samegrelo.

The official investigation ruled the death as a suicide but supporters rejected this decision. The resolution called for the chief prosecutor’s office to open a new investigation taking into account the commission's report.

The report said that the investigation into Gamsakhurdia's death was carried out with negligence of crucial circumstances and through ignorance of major evidence. Key evidence, including gun and also a bullet, disappeared as well as multiple inconsistencies in the official investigation.

Gamsakhurdia was elected president following the 1991Georgia's independence, but was ousted in a military coup after allegations of authoritarianism.

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