Suspect Says Russian Peacekeepers Ordered Georgian Terrorist Attack

MosNews
Aug. 16, 2005

One of three people suspected of committing a terrorist attack in the Georgian city of Gori on February 1 has said it was ordered by Russians.

Giorgy Zaseyev detained at the territory of the restive Georgian republic of South Ossetia admitted he had committed the terrorist attack with the republic’s inhabitants Giorgy Valiyev and Iosif Kochiyev who were detained on July 17.

Speaking before the Georgian Interior Ministry’s video camera, he said the attack had been ordered by “trainers that were in the lists of the Russian peacemakers in (the South Ossetian capital of) Tskhinvali,” Interfax quoted himas saying. “They told only their first names, Igor and Roma (the diminutive of Roman). In the beginning of this year, Igor who came from Moscow told us we must commit a terrorist attack in Gori.”

Three people were killed, 23 injured in a car blast near a police building in Gori on February 1. There were 70 kilograms of TNT in the car.

South Ossetian authorities had reported earlier that Georgian investigators receive evidence from Zaseyev, Valiyev and Kochiyev “using physical pressure.”

In the end of July, Georgian Interior Minister Vano Merabishvili accused the Russian military of behind a series of attacks including Gori blast. His Russian counterpart, Sergei Ivanov, refuted those accusations.