The Tbilisi City Court ordered on October 24 pre-trial detention for two former Georgian security officers charged with terrorism in connection to shooting and grenade attack incident that took place in the village of Khurcha on the Abkhaz administrative boundary line on May 21, 2008 – the day when parliamentary elections were held in Georgia.

Former head of the Department of Constitutional Security of the Abkhaz Autonomous Republic within the Georgian Interior Ministry, Roman Shamatava, and ministry’s former employee from the special task unit in Samegrelo region, Malkhaz Murgulia, were arrested on terrorism charges on October 22.

The two former security officers deny charges.

The two men are accused of carrying out the attack in the village of Khurcha more than five years ago, which at the time was blamed on the Abkhaz side by Georgia’s previous authorities; but the current authorities claim that the attack was carried out on the election day by then Interior Ministry officers with a “purpose of terrorizing peaceful population”. The authorities say that investigation is ongoing to identify those who have ordered the attack in which one woman was severely wounded.