MPs to Study Death of President Gamsakhurdia
Civil Georgia, Tbilisi / 20 Oct.'09 / 20:02

The Parliament endorsed on October 20 a proposal to set up an interim parliamentary commission to study circumstances of President Zviad Gamsakhurdia’s death sixteen years ago.

MP Jondi Bagaturia, who has formally initiated the proposal, said the commission, which has yet to be composed, would also give “a legal and political assessment” to a military coup as a result of which late President was ousted from the office.

Zviad Gamsakhurdia was ousted in in January, 1992, less than eight months after he had been elected President. The deposed president initially fled to Armenia and then to Chechnya, which at that time was controlled by rebel leader Dzhokhar Dudayev.

The following year Gamsakhurdia returned to Georgia in a failed attempt to regain power. He died in December 1993 in a remote village in the western Georgian region of Samegrelo in circumstances, which still remain a source of controversy with many of his supporters doubting version of suicide.

The Georgian media sources have long been speculating that Konstantine Gamsakhurdia, son of the late President and leader of Freedom Party, may agree to retake his MP seat following Parliament’s decision to establish such a commission. Some media sources were also reporting that if he agrees to join the Parliament, Konstantine Gamsakhurdia might even be named as the chair of this commission. Gamsakhurdia has yet to comment.

In September, the Parliament endorsed constitutional amendment allowing ten opposition politicians, including Konstantine Gamsakhurdia, to regain their MP credentials, which were rejected by them in protest against ballot fraud, which they said took place in the May 21, 2008 parliamentary elections. Nine of them have refused to retake their MP seats and Gamsakhurdia has not spoken publicly on the matter yet.

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