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International Herald Tribune, France
July 22 2005
Georgian admits attack
By C.J. Chivers The New York Times
FRIDAY, JULY 22, 2005 -- MOSCOW -- The man arrested Wednesday night
after a shootout with the Georgian police admitted on Thursday that
he threw a hand grenade near a stage where President George W. Bush
was addressing a huge public rally in May, two senior Georgian
officials said.
The grenade did not explode, but it sullied a presidential visit to the
small post-Soviet nation on the Black Sea, at which Bush embraced the
country's tilt toward the West, and gave a speech about the advance
of freedom and democracy.
The suspect, Vladimir Arutyunian, 27, told doctors who are treating
him that he had hurled the grenade, Vano Merabishvili, Georgia's
interior minister, and Gela Bezhuashvili, the chairman of Georgia's
National Security Council, both said in telephone interviews.
Arutyunian's motive was not immediately clear, but the initial
impression of investigators was that he bore some unspecified animus
toward the United States and had acted alone, Merabishvili said.
The two officials said they expected the investigation to gain more
clarity once officers are able to interview the suspect. Arutyunian
was under guard on Thursday in a hospital in Tbilisi, where he was
being treated for gunshot wounds. His injuries were not regarded
as life-threatening.
A search of Arutyunian's apartment had turned up more grenades,
Russian military manuals and, according to Guram Donadze, the Interior
Ministry spokesman, a Russian-language copy of "The Day of the Jackal,"
a novel about a plot to assassinate Charles de Gaulle.
Arutyunian, an unemployed Georgian citizen of Armenian descent, was
arrested at the apartment he shared with his mother on the outskirts
of Tbilisi on Wednesday night after a shootout in which one Georgian
officer was killed.
The arrest capped an intense week for Georgian security officials,
who released photographs of the suspect on Monday, and offered a
reward of more than $80,000 for information about his whereabouts.
The photographs showed a clean-shaven young man in a black jacket
and dark glasses.
Bezhuashvili said the pictures were discovered after an investigation
conducted jointly by the Georgian authorities and the United States,
in which officers reviewed every obtainable photograph or video taken
in the crowd, including satellite imagery.
Once the pictures were released, Bezhuashvili said, the tips leading
to Arutyunian began pouring in, and he was promptly arrested. He had
recently grown a beard.
The American Embassy in Tbilisi released a statement expressing its
appreciation for the arrest and calling the joint efforts during the
investigation "a model for international law enforcement cooperation."
Merabishvili said Arutyunian was a member of a separatist party that
supported the deposed leadership of Ajaria, a region formerly out of
Georgia's federal control that rejoined the nation last year under
pressure from Mikhail Saakashvili, Georgia's president.
But he said it was not clear what influence, if any, separatist
politics may have had in the incident. It was also not immediately
clear where the suspect obtained the grenades and the assault rifle
with which he fired at the police.
July 22 2005
Georgian admits attack
By C.J. Chivers The New York Times
FRIDAY, JULY 22, 2005 -- MOSCOW -- The man arrested Wednesday night
after a shootout with the Georgian police admitted on Thursday that
he threw a hand grenade near a stage where President George W. Bush
was addressing a huge public rally in May, two senior Georgian
officials said.
The grenade did not explode, but it sullied a presidential visit to the
small post-Soviet nation on the Black Sea, at which Bush embraced the
country's tilt toward the West, and gave a speech about the advance
of freedom and democracy.
The suspect, Vladimir Arutyunian, 27, told doctors who are treating
him that he had hurled the grenade, Vano Merabishvili, Georgia's
interior minister, and Gela Bezhuashvili, the chairman of Georgia's
National Security Council, both said in telephone interviews.
Arutyunian's motive was not immediately clear, but the initial
impression of investigators was that he bore some unspecified animus
toward the United States and had acted alone, Merabishvili said.
The two officials said they expected the investigation to gain more
clarity once officers are able to interview the suspect. Arutyunian
was under guard on Thursday in a hospital in Tbilisi, where he was
being treated for gunshot wounds. His injuries were not regarded
as life-threatening.
A search of Arutyunian's apartment had turned up more grenades,
Russian military manuals and, according to Guram Donadze, the Interior
Ministry spokesman, a Russian-language copy of "The Day of the Jackal,"
a novel about a plot to assassinate Charles de Gaulle.
Arutyunian, an unemployed Georgian citizen of Armenian descent, was
arrested at the apartment he shared with his mother on the outskirts
of Tbilisi on Wednesday night after a shootout in which one Georgian
officer was killed.
The arrest capped an intense week for Georgian security officials,
who released photographs of the suspect on Monday, and offered a
reward of more than $80,000 for information about his whereabouts.
The photographs showed a clean-shaven young man in a black jacket
and dark glasses.
Bezhuashvili said the pictures were discovered after an investigation
conducted jointly by the Georgian authorities and the United States,
in which officers reviewed every obtainable photograph or video taken
in the crowd, including satellite imagery.
Once the pictures were released, Bezhuashvili said, the tips leading
to Arutyunian began pouring in, and he was promptly arrested. He had
recently grown a beard.
The American Embassy in Tbilisi released a statement expressing its
appreciation for the arrest and calling the joint efforts during the
investigation "a model for international law enforcement cooperation."
Merabishvili said Arutyunian was a member of a separatist party that
supported the deposed leadership of Ajaria, a region formerly out of
Georgia's federal control that rejoined the nation last year under
pressure from Mikhail Saakashvili, Georgia's president.
But he said it was not clear what influence, if any, separatist
politics may have had in the incident. It was also not immediately
clear where the suspect obtained the grenades and the assault rifle
with which he fired at the police.