Saturday, July 23, 2005

Blogrel: "Updates On Georgia Grenade"

Here are some quick updates on the Georgia Grenade situation (published by blogrel ), as of 8am Eastern Time:

CNN reports that Arutiniani confessed to doctors while in the hospital recovering from the wounds during the shootout. He is 27 years old and is a citizen of Georgia but ethnically Armenian.
American Secret Service (these are the people that protect the president and also monitor the embassies in Washington… don’t be put off by their name, non-Americans) are not involved in the investigation.

Reuters has a quote from the Minister of Health:
Deputy health minister Irakly Giorgobiani said: “Doctors, who talked to (him) yesterday, said that he had confessed that he had thrown a grenade. But they also said that he may not have been in control of himself at the time.”

RFE/RL also spelled the man’s name as Arutyunian and his patronym and first name as Vladimir Vladimirovich. They also tell us that the shootout was broadcast live on Georgian TV.
His mother was interviewed by police and told reporters that her son had disappeared for the past three days before returning home overnight. “He hasn’t been home for the past three days,” she said. “Before that, he was always here.” His mother’s name is Anzhela.

AP reports as well. The only thing new from them is that the suspect was unemployed. They use the Armenian spelling as well.
Civil.Ge reprints the USA Embassy of Georgia’s statement on the case stating that they welcome the news of the arrest.
Civil.Ge gives a Georgian press roundup which includes a quote from the suspect’s neighbor: “He always preferred to be isolated and was a very quiet person. His father died long ago. The family is very poor.” Civil.Ge reports that the Ministry of Internal Affairs released video of the search of the suspect’s apartment. PanArmenian.Net commented that the suspect is not an Armenian citizen.
MosNews
Health update from Civil.GE

________________________________9:30am Eastern Time update:
Civil.Ge documents how the reward money will be distributed
Prime News coverage nothing new
New RFE/RL story nothing new

________________________________ 1:30pm Eastern Time update:
RFE/RL has an update and a photo. They say that the neighbors turned him in. The Interior Ministry released a tape with a confession.
RIA coverage
Reuters update

________________________________4pm Eastern Time update:
Eurasianet has
an article and the update is that he isn’t really speaking to anyone. No reason for the attempt has yet been stated.
Interfax has
a short article.
BBC has
an update as well.
RIA has a
new story with a quote: “I threw a grenade at Bush,” Arutyunyan told Interior Ministry’s spokesman Guram Donadze. “If you are a good servant, he may give you a medal.”

________________________________5pm Eastern Time update:

[ rough translation from Russian source]Vladimir Arutiunian will be indicted soon, REGNUM news agency reports from Tbilisi, quoting Georgia’s Prosecutor General Zurab Adeishvili. Asked by the journalists whether he had discussed the arrest of Arutiunian during his meeting with Armenian Prosecutor General [who is visiting Georgia], Adeishvili said, “the suspect is a citizen of Georgia, and the incident took place in Georgia, so it has nothing to do with Armenia. All information and all evidence are still being sought in Georgia, because that’s where they are.”
As a reminder, the 27-year-old Vladimir Arutiunian was detained late on July 20 during a special Ministry of Internal Affairs forces operation in Tbilisi district of Vashlidjvari. Before his detention, he shot and killed the chief of MIA Counterterrorism Department, Zurab Kvilidze. Arutiunian is suspected of attempting assassination of Georgian and U.S. Presidents during George Bush’s visit to Tbilisi.


Here are another blog-articels:
* Georgia Arrests Failed Bush Assassin!
* Bush Grenade Suspect Captured After Shootout in Georgia

Cross-posted at siberianlight.net and registan.net

Another Texts (The Messenger):
* Random photo unravels grenade mystery
* One grenade thrower, several theories

No comments: