Man Suspected of Killing Two Policemen Arrested

Police arrested on Friday morning a man suspected of killing two policemen and wounding two others in two separate shooting incidents in Borjomi and Tbilisi in January and April.

Shalva Abuladze, whom the prosecutor’s office charged with murder of police officers and attempted murder, as well as illegal possession of arms, was arrested in Borjomi, the Interior Ministry said on Friday.

According to the Interior Ministry on January 23 Abuladze opened fire to the two police officers in the town of Borjomi, killing one and injuring another policeman. On April 4 when two police officers tried to “stop and check” a man in Varketili district of capital Tbilisi, he opened fire and fatally shot one and badly injured another policeman. The Interior Ministry said that the assailant was the same man, who was involved in the Borjomi shooting. Next morning, on April 5, when the police tried to apprehend the suspect in Tbilisi, he again opened fire and managed to escape, according to the police.

The Interior Ministry said that the police found two handguns and a hand grenade in a building in Borjomi where Abuladze was hiding.

Abuladze is a former convict, who spent over seven years, less than half of his lengthy prison term, in jail for attempted murder charges before being released in late November, 2013. His release was made possible, at first through halving of his prison term as a result of large-scale amnesty, which was enacted few months after the GD coalition came into power, and then through granting him a pre-term release by a special pardon commission.

After attending funeral ceremony of a policeman killed in Tbilisi on April 4, PM Irakli Garibashvili said that state will be “merciless” to those, who were released from jails as a result of large-scale amnesty or through pardon, but became repeat offenders and called on the police to “clean our society of such criminals.”