10:03, 17 December 2018

Zviad Gamsakhurdiya's sons go on hunger strike

Konstantin and Tsotne Gamsakhurdiya. Photo: RFE/RL

Konstantin and Tsotne Gamsakhurdiya went on a hunger strike, demanding to investigate their father's murder.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that in March 2017, the sons and supporters of Zviad Gamsakhurdiya, the first president of Georgia held a protest action in front of the country's parliament. The sons, Konstantin and Tsotne, stated that investigators were protracting the inquiry into the murder case and fail to use earlier gathered materials.

The first president of Georgia, Zviad Gamsakhurdiya, died in December 1993 in a village in the Samegrelo Region in Western Georgia, where he, along with several of his supporters, was hiding from the authorities. In 2010, an interim commission set up to investigate the circumstances of his death rejected the original version of the General Prosecutor's Office (GPO) that Zviad Gamsakhurdiya committed suicide.

Konstantin and Tsotne Gamsakhurdiya announced their hunger strike in the GPO building; they put forward claims to Georgian authorities because December 25 is the deadline of the 25 years limitation period, after which the perpetrators could not be imprisoned, the "Georgia-Online" reports.

According to Konstantin Gamsakhurdiya, changes should be made to the law, according to which in special cases "the investigation must continue and there must be another limitation period."

Tsotne Gamsakhurdiya has stated that the GPO knows who is guilty of his father' death, the "Sputnik-Georgia" reports.

"This is a specific person, a high-ranking official; others point to him, but the GPO is trying to hide it," the "Sputnik-Georgia" quotes him as saying.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on December 16, 2018 at 06:25 am MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.