Man 'confesses' to grenade attack during Bush visit

A man arrested in Georgia has confessed to throwing a grenade during a speech by visiting US President George W. Bush in May, authorities said yesterday. US officials said at the time the grenade only failed to explode because of a malfunction and...

A man arrested in Georgia has confessed to throwing a grenade during a speech by visiting US President George W. Bush in May, authorities said yesterday.

US officials said at the time the grenade only failed to explode because of a malfunction and landed within 30 metres of Mr Bush as he spoke to tens of thousands of people in Tbilisi's Freedom Square.

The Georgian Interior Ministry released a tape made yesterday showing the suspect, identified only as Arutunyan, confessing.

Asked by an official whether he threw the grenade, Arutunyan, who looked calm, replied: "Yes".

Deputy health minister Irakly Giorgobiani said: "Doctors, who talked to (him) yesterday, said that he had confessed that he had thrown a grenade. But they also said that he may not have been in control of himself at the time."

Georgian police detained the man on Wednesday after a special operation in which an anti-terrorism officer was killed and the suspect wounded.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.