Interior minister says bank attacker in Zugdidi took bank’s money, not the state’s

Georgian Interior Minister Vakhtang Gomelauri has confirmed that the attacker on the Bank of Georgia Zugdidi branch yesterday took money from the bank and it was not state money as some media outlets said. 

Gomelauri stated that everything is being done to detain the offender. 

Our primary goal was to save the hostages. Now [we are doing all we can] to detain the offender and hold him accountable,” Gomelauri said. 

• PM on bank attack: hostages saved, ‘now we must detain offender’

The offender allegedly took 500,000 USD after ‘long and complicated’ negotiations with the police yesterday to release 19 hostages.

• How did the robbery take place? 

He left the bank building with a local police official and three hostages and drove to a forest in Chkhorotsku municipality, where he released the hostages and ran earlier today.  

The Director General of the opposition-minded TV channel Mtavari Arkhi, former Justice Minister under UNM government Nika Gvaramia says that an unidentified source contacted him yesterday and told him the name of the bank attacker. 

Gvaramia says that the source also told him that the attacker had two accomplices inside the bank, both acting soldiers, who played the role of hostages.

At about 16:00, one of the hostages, Irakli Kvaratskhelia, called Mtavari Arkhi and relayed the demands of the attacker, noting there were 19 hostages, including him in the building and that the attacker was heavily armed, with a hand-grenade in his hand.