Bush grenade thrower 'was acting alone'

01/11/2005 - 09:00:42
Georgia’s interior minister said a man who admitted throwing a live grenade toward US President George Bush during a rally in the ex-Soviet nation was acting alone and had no links to any foreign special services.

Interior Minister Vano Merabishvili said Vladimir Arutyunian, who was indicted in September by a US grand jury on charges of trying to assassinate the president, will face trial in Georgia soon.

“Arutyunian was a terrorist acting alone,” Merabishvili told the 24 Hours newspaper.

Arutyunian faces terrorism and murder charges in Georgia stemming from the May 10 incident in Tbilisi and the killing of a policeman in a shootout before his arrest in July.