Interior Minister: 'Zugdidi bank robber hasn't left Georgia, he is in the country'
The attacker, who has been keeping the hostages since noon, has demanded half a million USD and security guarantees from police. Photo: Mtavari.tv.
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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.
For some reason people might think that we do not want to arrest Esabua or that we are hiding him. According to our information, he is in Georgia, he has not left the country. Hopefully, the information is correct. We rely on this source that Esabua is here", Gomelauri said.
However, Gomelauri added that Esabua's whereabouts have not yet been identified.
If we knew where he is, of course, we would arrest him", Gomelauri said.
The Zugdidi bank robbery
Police received a call about an armed attacker at 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 eventually released the remaining hostages and escaped with half a million USD.
The search operation to detain Esabua has been underway since then.
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.
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.
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 armed robber who attacked the Bank of Georgia branch in Kvareli, eastern Georgian region of Kakheti earlier today has been detained. The man, who held 10-15 individuals hostage in a hold up of a Bank of Georgia branch, allegedly demanded half a million GEL. The individual, identified only as Sh.M. and born in 1972, was detained for holding 13 individuals hostage, as well as illegal purchase and possession of ammunition.
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.
Georgian Justice Minister Rati Bregadze on Wednesday responded to the arrest of a bank robber who had been wanted for two years by saying the detention was a “warning signal to all criminal romantics succumbed to temptation”.
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.