Fire was open against Irakli Okruashvili during the pre-election meeting

On October 2, when the single mandate candidate in Gori Irakli Okruashvili was meeting the local population, somebody opened fire in his direction. Koba Koshadze, Okruashvili’s security officer, and Bidzina Tomashvili, the member of his political party, were wounded. Their health conditions are stable now. Doctors at the Gori hospital said the wounded were operated and their lives are not under threat now. Irakli Okruashvili conducted the ad-hoc briefing short after the incident and named the person who opened fire in his direction. 

“We had meetings with voters from early morning. Eduard Nutsubidze, the coordinator of the Georgian Dream, tried to fail the meetings. When he did not succeed, he brought recidivist and thief Aleksandre Induashvili, who is a famous criminal in Gori. He also had a desire to fail the meeting, however, my security officers politely told him to stop. In the end, Induashvili, pulled out the firearm and several times shot in our direction”, - Irakli Okruashvili claimed and imposed the responsibility for the incident on the Georgian Dream and Kakhi Kaladze. 

Irakli Okruashvili said Kakhi Kaladze’s brother-in-law had promised criminals if they would be active, nobody would touch them. 

According to the MIA, a person who shot is identified. Right now police and Prosecutor’s Office are looking for him. The MIA added that before the shot, there was verbal argument. 

Okruashvili said he will wait for the police, but warned the law enforcement bodies that Induashvili is going to leave Georgia via Tskhinvali. 

Irakli Kobakhidze, the executive secretary of the Georgian Dream – Democratic Georgia, commented on the incident in Gori and excluded the political motive in it; moreover he categorically excluded participation of the leaders of the Georgian Dream in the incident. 

“Unpleasent incident happened in Gori, which started from the verbal argument. The conflict started between Irakli Okruashvili, his supporters and the local population. For us, of course, everything is inadmissible what happened there, but I repeat and emphasize that it did not have political motive”, - Irakli Kobakhidze explained. 

The single mandate candidate in Gori Irakli Alasania called on the law enforcement bodies to promptly investigate the incident. 

“Why people attend the pre-election meetings with guns? The instigator of the incident shall be punished severely. The harassers shall be punished and it should become example for others, so that nobody would dare to speak with the language of gun during the pre-election campaign. We saw very well what results have similar activities in the 90ies”, - Alasania declared. 

Till now, the MIA has not spread information about the  arrest of Induashvili who is accused in wounding Okruashvili’s two attendants.