RFE/RL Georgia: Family Challenges Official Stance On Prime Minister’s Death
Friday, 27 May 2005
By Jean-Christophe Peuch
On 3 February, Georgian Prime Minister Zurab Zhvania was found dead in a
Tbilisi apartment along with a friend, 25-year-old Raul Yusupov.
Authorities have declared the deaths a case of poisoning caused by a
faulty gas heater. U.S. investigators have — at least publicly —
backed the accident theory, saying they see no reason to challenge the
official account of events. But the late prime minister’s widow has cast
doubt over the government probe. Also, his brother tells RFE/RL that he
suspects foul play and demands an independent investigation.
Prague, 27 May 2005 (RFE/RL) — The death of the 41-year-old Zurab
Zhvania sent a shockwave throughout Georgia, prompting President Mikheil
Saakashvili to call for national unity amid speculation that his team
would be unable to recover and would soon fall apart.
Addressing reporters on the eve of Georgia’s Independence Day,
Saakashvili on 25 May described Zhvania’s death as a personal loss.
“This year I lost my closest brother-in-arms, a friend, and my most
valuable adviser — such was Zurab Zhvania to me,” Saakashvili said. “It
was a strong blow to me and a strong blow to the country — but
especially to me. It took me several months to pull myself together,
stand firmly on my feet again, and I had no right to show people how
difficult it was for me.”
Commenting on the televised press conference the following day, Georgian
media noted the president had failed to address the many questions that
keep swirling around the official probe into Zhvania’s death.
Opposition leaders, independent legal experts, and journalists, family
members, and friends of the late prime minister have from the onset
raised doubts about the official version given by the government.
The haste with which authorities concluded that the two men died of
poisoning — even before the forensic examination had started — and the
contradictory official statements regarding the volume of carbon
monoxide contained in their bodies aroused particular suspicion.
The haste with which authorities concluded that the two men died of
poisoning — even before the forensic examination had started — and the
contradictory official statements regarding the volume of carbon
monoxide contained in their bodies aroused particular suspicion.
Elene Tevdoradze, a member of the Georgian parliament’s majority,
indicated as early as 9 February that she and other close friends of the
late prime minister had doubts that the men died as the result of an
accident.
The following day, on 10 February, Davit Gamkrelidze, the leader of the
minority opposition in parliament, demanded that the legislature conduct
its own investigation into Zurab Zhvania’s death.
“We must tell the public — not only our own citizens, but also the
entire world — whether this was a tragic accident, or a cruel contract
killing, and what the government is planning to do about this,”
Gamkrelidze said.
The largely pro-government parliament, however, did not follow suit.
Since February, Zurab Zhvania’s younger brother, Goga (Giorgi), has been
conducting his own investigation with the help of friends, relatives,
and Yusupov’s family. He told RFE/RL he believes the official probe is
flawed.
“I’ve been collecting information [on the circumstances surrounding my
brother’s death] for several months now and this information is arousing
serious queries with regard to this [official] version,” Goga Zhvania said.
Goga Zhvania has demanded that an independent probe — possibly
involving European experts — be conducted into his brother’s death. He
said he will officially press Saakashvili to authorize such an
investigation when he meets with him on 28 May.
Asked whether he thinks his brother was assassinated, Goga Zhvania said:
“Before I only had suspicions. Now, I’m almost sure he was. Zurab had
many, many enemies.”
Zurab Zhvania’s widow, Nino Kadagidze, said she shares her
brother-in-law’s concerns regarding the official probe.
In comments broadcast on television on 25 May, Kadagidze charged that
Georgian authorities were “doing their utmost to substantiate the
accident theory” while neglecting all other possible versions.
“The investigators must either admit this was not an accident, or
produce evidence showing this was an accident,” Kadagidze said. “There
is no other alternative.”
Government officials have repeatedly dismissed the assassination theory.
Saakashvili spokesman Gela Charkviani on 4 April said there was no doubt
that Zurab Zhvania’s death was accidental.
“When professionals say something, one ought to trust them,” Charkviani
said. “In the present case, we’re talking about two groups of
professionals — one made up of Georgians professionals who investigated
this case, and one made up of FBI agents whose conclusions coincide
[with those of the Georgian investigators].”
Upon a request made by Georgian authorities, a group of FBI officers
arrived in Tbilisi on 8 February to help investigate Zurab Zhvania’s death.
Three days later, Bryan Paarmann, the legal attache of the U.S. Embassy
in Georgia, announced that the American experts had found no evidence
that would contradict the initial conclusions of their Georgian
colleagues and that there was “no reason to allege that a third party
was involved in the incident.”
Yet, Goga Zhvania maintains that the FBI conclusions were in fact quite
different.
“The FBI investigators conducted an experiment in the apartment [where
Zurab and Raul were found dead] and examined the organs of the
deceased,” Goga Zhvania said. “Forensic examination had shown carbon
monoxide had spread into the bodies of the deceased, causing death by
poisoning. [The U.S. team] tested the apartment’s gas heater.
Officially, the carbon monoxide found in the bodies of the two deceased
had leaked out from this gas heater. But the tests made by the U.S.
investigators show the heater was functioning ideally and that there had
obviously been no carbon-monoxide leak [in the apartment].”
Goga Zhvania said his assertions are based on a copy of the FBI report
he obtained from the Prosecutor-General’s Office. He also said the U.S.
document and the official Georgian translation differ widely and
sometimes even contradict each other.
Attempts to obtain a copy of the report from the FBI produced no
immediate results. An agency spokeswoman in Washington told RFE/RL that
no information could be provided regarding the document until a Freedom
of Information Act request is filed.
Goga Zhvania cited what he says are other “troubling facts” regarding
the official probe. For example, he said, no fingerprints of the
deceased were found in the apartment where the prime minister’s
bodyguards reportedly found the bodies shortly after 4:00 a.m. He also
pointed to another detail.
“No cigarette butts that could have been left by Zurab were found [in
the apartment],” Gogi Zhvania said. “He had a peculiar way of stubbing
out his cigarettes. Also, the testimonies given by his bodyguards are
extremely dubious. Sometimes they contradict each other, sometimes they
lead to a dead end.”
Kadagidze on 25 May also cited discrepancies she noted in the
testimonies of Zurab Zhvania’s bodyguards.
She also alleged that the head of her late husband’s security team
spirited away keys from the prime minister’s dead body and rushed to the
State Chancellery. She claimed many documents were later found missing
from his safe.
Goga Zhvania said that so far there have been no attempts to prevent him
from investigating his brother’s death. However, he complained of what
he described as “psychological pressure.”
“There have been no threats per se. But some people told me that should
I continue to dig for clues, I would regret it,” Goga Zhvania said.