Late PM Zhvania's security guards face jury trial
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A jury panel will decide the fate of the two security guards of late Prime Minister Zurab Zhvania, who were charged in relation to the leader’s unexplained death.
Mikheil Dzadzamia and Koba Kharshiladze were the late PM’s security guard shift managers and were charged with negligence due to their "careless attitude towards their work, which inadvertently caused the death of Zhvania”, the Prosecutor’s Office said.
Dzadzamia and Kharshiladze expressed their desire for their trial to be heard in front of a jury. The jury selection process will start on October 22. At the conclusion of the trial, the jury will decide whether Dzadzamia and Kharshiladze were guilty of the charges against them.
Jury trials were first introduced in Georgia in 2010 and the first trial using jurors took place in 2011. Under Georgian law, a jury trial should apply to all criminal cases in which a person might be deprived of freedom. However, in the first stage of the law’s implementation, this option was only available in Tbilisi, Batumi and Kutaisi City Courts regarding cases involving current and former officials as well as serious criminal cases.
In addition, the law stated the defendant also had the right to refuse a jury trial.
Meanwhile Dzadzamia and Kharshiladze have been charged with negligence in relation to the death of Georgia's former Prime Minister Zhvania.
The Chief Prosecutor’s Office said in order to ensure the safety of Zhvania and his family, an obligatory security plan had been developed where the PM’s security guards had to protect the leader at all times and not abandon their role.
Despite this, on the night of February 2, 2005, Dzadzamia and Kharshiladze improperly fulfilled their duties and abandoned their post, which left the PM without any protection. Early the following morning Zhvania was found dead.
The Chief Prosecutor’s Office has decided to exhume the body of late Georgian Prime Minister Zurab Zhvania to establish the real cause of his death.
Today Georgia’s Chief Prosecutor’s Office arrested Dzadzamia, who was the late PM’s security guard shift manager, on the basis of working negligence that caused human death.
A forensic expert who took part in the process of reviewing the bodies of Georgia’s late Prime Minister Zurab Zhvania and Deputy Governor of Kvemo Kartli region Raul Usupov has been arrested.
The bodies of two former Georgian officials who died in unknown circumstances nine years ago will be exhumed as the Prosecutor’s Office believes the previous examinations were "incomplete”.
We do not know who released the graphic photos of Zurab Zhvania and Raul Usupov, said Georgia’s Minister of Interior Affairs Alexander Chikaidze before entering today’s Government meeting.
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Graphic and disturbing images showing the dead bodies of two former Georgian officials has been leaked on the internet, with the family of one victim claiming the images are "genuine”.
The body of one of Georgia’s leading Prime Ministers, who died in unknown circumstances, could be exhumed.
A former business leader serving a life sentence in prison has been questioned about the death of Georgia’s former Prime Minister Zurab Zhvania.
United National Movement is demanding the creation of an independent group to oversee the investigation into the death of late Prime Minister Zurab Zhvania.
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The wife of the late Prime Minister of Georgia Zurab Zhviania says ex-President Mikheil Saakashvili is lying about a conversation between the pair when he was interviewed on television last night.
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"I cannot name the exact date but I am sure the investigation will be finished soon. As for the exhumation, the decision has not been made yet. There is only general discussion but both Georgian and foreign experts should be involved,” said Giorgi Zhvania.
Muslim religious officials (Mullahs) from the native village of the late Deputy Governor of Georgia’s Kvemo Kartli region Raul Usupov, who was found dead alongside late Prime Minister Zurab Zhvania in 2005, have revealed new details about the men’s death at today’s trial.
The number of unanswered questions surrounding late Prime Minister Zurab Zhvania’s death in 2005 has increased this year but Georgia’s Public Defender Ucha Nanuashvili believes there is a "chance” the case will be solved.
The Chief Prosecutor’s Office of Georgia has brought charges against ex-Chief Prosecutor and a top former official of the country’s National Forensics Bureau in connection with the 2005 death of former Prime Minister Zurab Zhvania.
Two security guards tending to Georgia’s late Prime Minister Zurab Zhvania have been found guilty of negligence, which led to the PM’s death in 2005.
A jury trial will decide the fate of Merab Kobiashvili, who was detained for murdering Tamaz Gortamashvili and injuring Gortamashvili’s friend, Davit Seturidze, in Georgia’s mountain resort town of Gudauri on February 16, 2020.
Merab Kobiashvili, who had been in pre-trial detention for murdering Tamaz Gortamashvili and injuring Gortamashvili’s friend, David Seturidze, has been released from the courtroom today as the term of his pre-trial detention came to an end and a sufficient number of jurors could not be selected for a jury trial.