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Monday, 01.10.2007
Georgian President accused of murder - by close ally
Tbilisi. Former Georgian defence minister Irakli Okruashvili has levelled murder charges at President Saakashvili. He has publicly charged the latter with ordering a number of murders and plotting the invasion of South Ossetia. Okruashvili was subsequently arrested on treason charges.
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Okruashvili, as defence minister a renowned hawk and Saakashvili’s right hand man, has now launched all-out war against his former friend. In a TV interview, he accused the President of ordering the murders of political opponents and businessmen.
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Was the prime minister murdered?
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According to Okruashvili, Saakashvili’s most prominent victim was Surab Shvaniya, at the time his prime minister. Officially, Shvaniya died in an accident. He was found in his apartment apparently poisoned by a domestic gas leak. But Okruashvili alleges that he died elsewhere, and his corpse was then moved to the apartment to give the semblance of an accident.
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Okruashvili also related that Saakashvili had ordered him to arrange the murder of tycoon Badri Patarkazishvili, a friend of Vladimir Putin’s arch-enemy Boris Berezovksy. Okruashvili says that only he prevented the murder being carried out.
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Okruashvili: Corruption and war-mongering in the Georgian government
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Okruashvili also spoke of unfettered corruption reigning in Saakashvili’s administration. The president’s clan are the real owners of the Georgian railways and numerous other companies, he claimed
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Okruashvili, as defence minister a hardliner towards the separatist regions of South Ossetia and Abkhasia, and vehemently anti-Russian, maintains that Tbilisi has a secret plan to occupy South Ossetia.
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The plan was to have been executed in the spring of 2006. A text had even been prepared for the Saakashvili to deliver to the UN, abrogating the presence of Russian peacekeeping forces in Georgia. But Saakashvili pulled back at the last minute. And this dovetails with rumours at that time that such a military invasion of South Ossetia was in the pipeline.
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Okruashvili’s arrest: Proof he is speaking the truth?
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The Georgian authorities reacted immediately to Okruashvili’s words: He was arrested the next day. The Internet publication Kavkasusel (Caucasian Knot) says that he is facing a lengthy prison term for high treason, due to his revealing the Georgian government’s military plans.
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Should this be true, it would mean that the Georgian government had factually admitted its readiness to war.
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There is still no official commentary. Saakashvili was at the time in New York addressing the UN Assembly, criticising Russia over the Abkhasian conflict, and Russian interference in Georgian domestic affairs. At the start of last week, an exchange of fire at the Georgian-Abkhasian border resulted in two deaths. A UN Commission is now investigating the circumstances.
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(ab/.rufo/Moskau)
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