Police arrest bank robber after two-year search
Badri Esebua, who attacked the Bank of Georgia Zugdidi branch in 2020, has been arrested in Samegrelo region, in the country’s west. Photo: RFE/RL
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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 body said Badri Esebua had been arrested in the region and charged with coercion, illegal purchase, possession and carrying of firearms and ammunition, organisation of a terrorist act and hostage-taking.
The Ministry added Esebua had been detained in a special operation and faced up to 15 years in prison if found guilty.
Video by the Georgian Ministry of Internal Affairs.
Police received a call about the armed robbery at the branch located on Zviad Gamsakhurdia Avenue in the city of Zugdidi on October 21, 2020.
The robber initially took 43 people hostage, before "long and complicated negotiations" ended in the release of most of the victims, with Esebua leaving the Bank late during the night with the head of Samegrelo-Zemo Svaneti Police Chief and three hostages. He then released the remaining hostages and escaped.
In December 2020, police arrested Esebua’s brother for illegal purchase and possession of firearms and ammunition and the court sentenced him to four years in prison in July 2021.
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.
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.
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.
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 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.
Georgian police officers have arrested five individuals who have been charged with illegal deprivation of liberty and robbery of sheep in the eastern Kakheti region, the Interior Ministry said on Wednesday.
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.