Brother of Zugdidi bank robber detained for illegal purchase, possession of firearms, ammunition
The search operation to detain the attacker has been underway since late October. Photo: Shot from Mtavari.tv video
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Brother of Badri Esebua, the Zugdidi bank robber who took hostages and escaped with half a million USD, was detained yesterday for the illegal purchase and possession of firearms and ammunition.
The Georgian Interior Ministry has reported that Bidzina Esebua was detained in the western Georgian region of Samegrelo yesterday.
The crime is punishable from four to seven years of imprisonment:
Reportedly, Bidizna Esebua had communication with his brother in exile and planned to hand him over the firearms and ammunition.
Upon detention he was found in possession of two hand grenades, sleeping bag, food and clothes.
About the Zugdidi bank robbery
Police received a call about an armed attacker on the bank of Georgia located at Zviad Gamsakhurdia Avenue in Zugdidi at 14:21 on October 21, who initially took 43 people hostage.
The Interior Ministry began ‘long and complicated negotiations’ with the attacker which ended in the release of most of the hostages.
Late at night the attacker left the building with the head of Samegrelo-Zemo Svaneti police chief Avtandil Galdava and three hostages. However, he eventfully released the remaining hostages and escaped with half a million USD.
The search operation to detain the attacker has been underway since then.
Attacker of microfinance organisation Levan Zurabashvil, who took hostages and demanded changes to the country’s legislation concerning loan issuance and gambling, has been denied bail.
A lawyer says that Levan Zurabashvili, who attacked MBC microfinance company yesterday and took hostages there, held a lighter, not a weapon, and that the man is a victim of gambling.
Georgian President Salome Zurabishvili has addressed journalists covering the Bank of Georgia branch hostage crisis in Zugdidi where an armed attacker took 19 people hostage earlier today. “I call on media outlets to take the appeal of the law enforcers into consideration and provide the public with information without hindering the operation of police units”, Zurabishvili said.
The Georgian Interior Ministry released a statement early in the morning, saying that following the special police operation in Samegrelo region, 'all hostages have been released and their lives and health are no longer in danger.' Irakli Kvaratskhelia, one of the hostages of the armed attacker in the Bank of Georgia branch in the western Georgian city of Zugdidi, had reported earlier that the attacker received money and left the building with three hostages.
Georgian Minister of Internal Affairs Vakhtang Gomelauri has stated that he has reliable information that Badri Esebua, the Zugdidi bank robber who took hostages, escaped with half a million USD and has been hiding for eight months, is still in Georgia.
All hostages held captive by an armed bank robber have been released and an operation is underway to arrest the assailant of the Bank of Georgia branch in the Kvareli district of eastern Georgian region of Kakheti.
The Georgian Interior Ministry on Wednesday confirmed the arrest of a man who was wanted since October 2020 for a robbery of a Bank of Georgia branch in the country’s western Samegrelo region, during which he took hostages and reportedly escaped with half a million dollars.
The Prosecutor General's Office of Georgia has brought one more criminal charge against the bank robber Badri Esebua for the purchase and storage of firearms and ammunition in addition to the charges pressed against him on Monday for coercion, illegal purchase, possession and carrying of firearms and ammunition, organisation of a terrorist act and hostage-taking, the Office announced on Thursday.
The Zugdidi District Court on Friday found Badri Esebua, the assailant who took hostages in a bank robbery in the western Georgian city in October 2020 and escaped with half a million dollars, guilty and sentenced him to 13 years in prison.