Official: U.S is not seeking extradition of man who admitted throwing
grenade toward Bush
.c The Associated Press
TBILISI, Georgia (AP) – Georgia’s interior minister said Thursday that
a man who admitted throwing a live grenade toward U.S. President
George W. Bush during a rally in the ex-Soviet nation will face
justice at home.
Interior Minister Vano Merabishvili said that the United States had
not asked for the extradition of Vladimir Arutyunian, who was indicted
Wednesday by a U.S. grand jury on charges of trying to assassinate the
president.
“The United States trusts the Georgian justice and law enforcement
agencies, and it hasn’t made an extradition request,” Merabishvili
said at a news conference.
Arutyunian already faces terrorism and murder charges in Georgia
stemming from the May 10 incident in Tbilisi and the killing of a
policeman in a shootout before his arrest in July. Merabishvili says
that the charges carry a punishment of life imprisonment – the same
punishment that he would face in the United States.
Bush and Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili were behind a
bulletproof barrier addressing a rally of thousands in Tbilisi in May
when the grenade, wrapped in a plaid cloth, landed about 100 feet
away. It did not explode; investigators said it apparently
malfunctioned. No one was harmed.
In a video broadcast on Georgian television, Arutyunian said he
intended to spray shrapnel over the bulletproof glass.
Autyunian got a new private lawyer Thursday to replace a lawyer
provided by the state.
09/08/05 13:53 EDT