Sixteen major criminals detained in Georgia

A large-scale special operation for detention of a group of major criminals in the Imereti region (West Georgia) was conducted at dawn on March 5 by the Special Forces and Ministry of Interior troops under the personal command of Georgia's Interior Minister Georgii Baramidze.

During the operation that was conducted in 12 Imereti districts and in Kutaisi, law enforcement agencies detained 16 major criminals.

They also detained Bondo Shalikiani, a businessman and owner of 17 petrol stations and the television company Kutaisi, who had won the majority system elections to the Georgian parliament in November 2003 (the proportional system parliamentary elections will occur on March 28, 2004).

"There is information a runaway prisoner on the wanted list was at Shalikiani's place. For this reason Shalikiani's place was searched, which did not confirm the information, though. However, the search led to seizing two automatics, explosives, and an antitank missile," Georgia's Prosecutor General Irakli Okruashvili told journalists.

Okruashvili noted Shalikiani had no immunity from prosecution because the Georgian parliament had not yet approved his authority. The Prosecutor General was on the spot while Shalikiani's place was being searched.

The television company Rustavi-2 reports Shalikiani is a relative of mobster Tariel Oniani and has been friends with him for a long while.

Before the start of the special operation, a meeting was held at the regional Interior Ministry authority on the night of March 5 by National Security Council Secretary Vano Merabishvili, Prosecutor General Irakli Okruashvili, Interior Minister Georgii Baramidze, and State Security Minister Zurab Adeishvili.

Two police officers and a passer-by were killed during the special operation, and a criminal on the wanted list over the past three years was liquidated. Another policeman, wounded during the operation, died later in hospital.

The skirmish occurred on the outskirts of the city. Police officers tried to block the road for two hijacked vehicles, a Ford jeep and a BMW, on which three criminals armed with automatics were going to Kutaisi. The criminals opened fire in return. One of them was killed by response fire, the other two were able to escape leaving the vehicles. Measures continue to be taken to find and detain them.