Murder in Gori: Many Unanswered Questions

Zaza Gigauri

On April 15 2008, the Love Day, a murder happened in the family of Zurab Iasamnidze in Dusheti Street in Gori. Vepkhia Muradashvili, a resident of the village of Akhaldaba, was murdered. Shida Kartli Regional Police Department investigated the accident – and according to the bill of indictment, Zurab Iasmnidze is charged for the premeditated murder of Vepkhia Muradashvili.

On the day when the murder was committed various news agencies broadcasted information with the headline: “Husband killed wife’s lover over jealousy.” This fact is interesting because not all the details of murder are known at the time the news was first publicized.

The late Vepkhia Muradashvili and the accused Zurab Iasamnidze had known each other for many years. Lali Papuashvili, Zurab Iasamnidze’s wife and Vepkhia Muradashvili had been classmates. Moreover, there were rumors that when they were at school, Vepkhia Muradashvili was in love with Lali Papuashvili. However, Lali Papuashvili loved Zurab Iasamnidze and he married her; they had two children from the union.

Lali Papuashvili sells cosmetics. On April 15 when Lali was working Zurab Iasamnidze found some unanswered calls in the wife’s mobile phone. He became interested in who was the caller. He rang the number that was calling her wife from his mobile phone. A man’s voice answered the call. Suddenly, the phone disconnected. After a while, Vepkhia Muradashvili called Iasamnidze’s number not knowing who he was. Vepkhia asked him to say his name. Zurab Iasamnidze told him his name. His acquaintances and other family associates say that their conversation ended up on this key note.

The couple returned home. When they came home, Iasamnidze asked his wife why Vepkhia called her. Lali Papuashvili said she did not know, as she had not answered his calls.

The defense of Iasamnidze says that Zurab considered jealousy and as a sin; in light of the circumstances, he with his wife decided to go to the priest. Zurab rang Father Konstantine. He said he wanted to confess having committed a sin. Father Konstantine told Zurab that he was not at church at that very moment but Zurab could go to church as another priest Father Kirile was there and he confess his sins with him.

When Zura Iasamnidze and his wife, Lali Papuashvili, were going to the church, somebody rang the bell. Zura looked out of the window and saw Vepkhia Muradashvili standing at the window. This happened at approximately 5:00 PM.

To avoid the conflict Zurab Iasmnidze asked his wife to go out and tell Muradashvili to leave the house. Lali Papuashvili did as instructed but having closed the gate Muradashvili started knocking on the door and tried to get back into the yard.

Zura Iasamnidze went out and replied Vepkhia in a loud voice. He ordered the man to leave his house. However, Muradashvili started knocking louder and the door finally opened.

Zaza Gigauri (Zurab Iasamnidze’s attorney): “My client only took the gun to scare Vepkhia. Zura shot in the air and shouted at Muradashvili to leave that place. Moreover, Muradashvili pushed Zura’s wife and the letter shot sport gun; though did not aim at Vepkhia. My client again demanded that Muradashvili to leave. Vapkhia the moved towards him and at that time the third shot was heard. The married couple does not remember when it actually happened. The only thing they remember is Vepkhia who shouted and hurriedly left the yard. When Vepkhia was sure that Zura had left, he put the gun down. Fifteen meters away Vepkhia fell down; Zura rushed up to him and after seeing he was shot called the patrol police and an ambulance arrived as a result of the phone call. He was calling upon his neighbors to help him.

Afterwards, Zura Iasamnidze called a policeman and told what had happened. He also declared that wanted to appear to the police station on his own accord.

It is a short story of the shooting incident. However the investigation is under way and this is only tentative.  Zaza Gigauri, a lawyer thinks that based on the evidence in the case, that the death cannot be qualified as premeditated murder.

His arguments are:

1) Vepkhia Muradashvili arrived at Zura Iasamnidze’s house; the latter asked him to leave his house several times. When Vepkhia tried to draw out knife from his pocket Iasamnidze did not have the intention of killing him. There is nothing against that stands against this fact in the case materials. Moreover, Zuram shot twice in the air and not at Vepkhia only to scare him and make him depart his house. Vepkhia was trying to approach him and pushed Zura’s wife away, as she was standing on his way. It was impossible to miss a person in the distance of 6 meters if Zura had actually wanted to shoot him.
2) Zura did not intend to do any harm for Vepkhia. Zura’s action proves it – he only wanted to go to the priest and confess to him about having been jealous over his wife. It can be proved by the calls to Father Konstantine from Zura’s mobile phone. Iasamnidze did not want to kill Muradashvili when he saw him out of the window though he could easily kill the man from that place. My client knew that the gun was loaded with initial three bullets that could kill only quail. It is absurd to claim that somebody wanted to kill person with that gun. Experts cannot insist that the shotgun could kill a person. One more factor s that Zura could not see how Vepkhia was wounded. Even if he had seen him, Vepkhia left his house and was hurrying somewhere. If Zura wanted to kill him he would not have let him go like that. How could Zura know that Vepkhia would die?
3) Vepkhia had damaged only lungs; no other organs. It is impossible to claim that murderer can be sure to kill a person with similar shot. Consequently, I state if Vepkhia had turned away during shooting, he would not have been wounded at all.

The attorney considers the qualification of the charge illegal and he intends to fight in order to determine the truth. As for state prosecutor, he does not agree with the position of the defendant and demands to charge the accused for having carried out a premeditated murder.