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Saturday, 18 February 2006

GEORGIAN INTERIOR MINISTER UNDER PRESSURE OVER BANKER\'S MURDER

Published in News Digest

By empty (2/18/2006 issue of the CACI Analyst)

Vano Merabishvili was summoned to parliament on 28 February to answer questions about the investigation into the killing of Sandro Girgvliani, an employee of United Georgian Bank. Girgvliani was found dead on the outskirts of Tbilisi on 28 January following a public argument the previous evening in a Tbilisi bar with men believed to have been Interior Ministry personnel. On 24 February, Georgian ombudsman Sozar Subar called on Merabishvili to dismiss ministry spokesman Guram Donadze for having attributed the murder to a dispute among the \"Svan mafia\" (Girgvliani\'s surname clearly identifies his family as originating in Georgia\'s northwestern Svaneti region), but Merabishvili refused.
Vano Merabishvili was summoned to parliament on 28 February to answer questions about the investigation into the killing of Sandro Girgvliani, an employee of United Georgian Bank. Girgvliani was found dead on the outskirts of Tbilisi on 28 January following a public argument the previous evening in a Tbilisi bar with men believed to have been Interior Ministry personnel. On 24 February, Georgian ombudsman Sozar Subar called on Merabishvili to dismiss ministry spokesman Guram Donadze for having attributed the murder to a dispute among the \"Svan mafia\" (Girgvliani\'s surname clearly identifies his family as originating in Georgia\'s northwestern Svaneti region), but Merabishvili refused. Opposition parliament deputies, some of whom have called on Saakashvili to dismiss Merabishvili over the murder, walked out of parliament on 28 February to protest Merabishvili\'s refusal to answer questions about the murder investigation, Caucasus Press. Elene Tevdoradze, who chairs the parliament Human Rights Commission, argued on 27 February that the Prosecutor-General\'s Office should take over the investigation into Girgvliani\'s death. (Caucasus Press)
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