Amidst building controversy over a fatal attack by an escaped zoo tiger, the Georgian government has emphasized that it is not planning to arrest Tbilisi Zoo Director Zurab Gurielidze for the June 17 slaying.
Scores of protesters gathered outside the government chancellery on the evening of June 17, after the general prosecutor’s office opened a criminal case for negligence and summoned Gurielidze and two other zoo employees for questioning.
In a meeting the next day with members of the emergency council dealing with the flood’s aftermath, Prime Minister Irakli Gharibashvili emphasized that the notion of a witch-hunt after Gurielidze is “absurd.”
“A conversation about a concrete person’s guilt for what happened is absolutely unacceptable,” news outlets reported him as saying.
The prosecutor’s office “should also question members of the crisis council and interior ministry employees to exclude any speculation,” he said.
In an earlier televised meeting of the emergency council, Gharibahvili had asked the zoo director not to take the blame for the killing, and expressed respect for him. Gurielidze earlier had taken responsibility for information that had prompted the government to announce before the attack that escaped zoo animals no longer posed a risk.
In comments after his two-hour-long questioning in the prosecutor’s office, Gurielidze told reporters that no mention had been made by prosecutors of criminal charges against him for professional negligence.
“The prosecutor was interested about how this, shall we say, mistake was allowed to happen,” he said. “As for a charge, there wasn’t any talk about that. We talked about what happened and about how establishing the number [of dead and missing animals] took place and how it turned out that one white tiger that we’d assumed had been killed turned out to be alive.” Police special forces shot the tiger dead after it killed 43-year-old Otar Tsukhishviliin in an abandoned downtown factory in Tbilisi .
In a video posted on the zoo’s Facebook page, Gurielidze expressed condolences to Tsukhishvili's family, and thanked Tbilisi residents for their support for the zoo.
Controversy, however, is still running strong. Some government critics, including ex-Defense Minister Irakli Alasania, charge that the public outcry in favor of Gurielidze, a popular Tbilisi personality, prevented charges from being filed against the zoo director.
For his part, the prime minister angrily claimed that ex-President Mikheil Saakashvili's United National Movement could have been behind the protest since, he alleged, party members want “to sow chaos and panic in society.” Protesters had called for the resignation of both the national and Tbilisi city governments.
A frustrated Energy Minister Kakha Kaladze late on June 17 called for an end to political accusations over the flood crisis. The drainage system for the highway that bordered the zoo has been blamed for contributing to the damage, and was constructed during the National Movement's time in city and national office.
"I can't agree with the opinion that this is all [ex-Tbilisi Mayor Givi] Ugulava’s, Saakashvli’s or the National Movement's fault since we haven't established the facts completely. We don't have an investigation.”
“If someone is to blame, everyone must be held accountable,” said Kaladze, who doubles as first deputy prime minister.
Arguably one of the few non-political events to come out of the flood -- hundreds of volunteers eager to help with the cleanup -- slowed on June 18 after the Tbilisi’s mayor’s office, citing a government warning against health risks in the flood-zone, restricted volunteers’ access to the areas.
Though no such statement was made, conceivably, the concern also could have been prompted by the whereabouts of a still missing tiger and hyena.
Overnight, police investigated alleged sightings of tigers in two other sections of Tbilisi; one on a road that borders the warehouse where the fatal tiger attack occurred. Nothing came of the searches.
Another live penguin, however, turned up on June 18 at a gas station near the warehouse. Another had been found the day before near the Azerbaijani border.
The exact number of zoo animals killed by the flood or by police has not yet been published.
Nineteen human deaths from the flood have been confirmed; another three people are still missing, the crisis council announced on June 18.
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