Rumours fly after murder of former Minister

The police have already launched an investigation into the murder of former Security Minister Tamaz Ninua and his wife. There are some official theories about what happened, but the Ministry of Internal Affairs explains that the theories they are working on cannot be made public yet.

Relatives and colleagues have said that personal enmity deriving from his work in high positions in top departments, or possibly his business activities, may have prompted Ninua’s murder. It has also been suggested that Russian special services could have murdered Ninua because he held information about first President of Georgia Zviad Gamsakhurdia’s death.

Manana Archvadze-Gamsakhurdia, widow of Zviad Gamsakhurdia, does not want to comment on the murder officially. However she has reportedly told a news agency that Ninua had played a huge role in Zviad Gamsakhurdia’s death and had been given this job by Russian special services. “Ninua was a deadly enemy of Gamsakhurdia and a traitor, he carried out the order, and he was a security director. He had information about Gamsakhurdia’s murder,” stated Archvadze.

Former Defence Minister Tengiz Kitovani has said openly that Ninua had compromising information about members of the Government. Kitovani considers that the main reason for Ninua and his wife’s murder was this information. Nodar Natadze, the Chairman of the People’s Front and a former Deputy of the Supreme Soviet, linked the murder with Russian special services. “I suppose that this is a political murder. Ninua held high positions in Gamsakhurdia’s Government and even after the revolution and it is impossible that he would not have any information about Russian special services,” explains Natadze. Former employee of the Security Ministry and author the book Georgia’s Generals Levan Dolidze thinks that the motive for the murder might be the creation of the special Parliamentary Commission investigating Gamsakhurdia’s death.

67-year-old Tamaz Ninua, ex-Minister of Security during the Presidency of Zviad Gamsakhurdia, and his wife Eter Ninua, 64, were murdered in their home at 18 Mickiewicz Street on 13 November. Both were shot in forehead with a gun. The person who entered the apartment was presumably familiar to them as Tamaz Ninua opened the door to him. After serving in senior positions in Gamsakhurdia’s Government Ninua was also Deputy Interior Minister under Shevardnadze.