Vasil Sanodze, head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs’ (MIA) internal investigations unit, who was hospitalized with a gunshot wound to the head overnight on May 3, has “a chance to survive”, a doctor said.

“He had a perforating wound to the head. Bullet entered his right temple and exited out of the left side of the forehead,” Grigol Nanava, a neurosurgeon at a Tbilisi hospital where Sanodze was initially treated, said.

Sanodze was last night flown abroad for further treatment, reportedly to Israel.

The Interior Ministry is denying media speculations that it could have been a suicide attempt, saying that Sanodze accidentally shot himself in his house.

Sanodze first came into public attention in early 2004 when President Saakashvili tasked him to monitor flaw of goods and taxes in port of Batumi in Adjara Autonomous Republic, which at the time was ruled by Aslan Abashidze.

In 2006, when he already served as head of MIA’s internal investigations unit, Sanodze, along with some other senior MIA officials, became embroiled in a murder scandal of Sandro Girgvliani. He was suspended from office pending the investigation into the Girgvliani case, but Sanodze later resumed performing his duties in MIA.