TBILISI, Georgia (AP) — A prosecutor in the former Soviet republic of Georgia has ordered the body of the late prime minister Zurab Zhvania to be exhumed, nearly a decade after his death in murky circumstances.
Zhvania was a top leader of the Rose Revolution protests that paved the way for Mikhail Saakashvili to become president in 2004. Zhvania died a year later. An autopsy determined that he died of carbon monoxide poisoning due to a faulty space heater in the Tbilisi apartment where his body was found, but suspicions of foul play have persisted.
Investigations into the death were relaunched in 2012 after Saakashvili’s coalition lost power in national elections.
Proscutor Revaz Nadoi told reporters Tuesday that Zhvania’s family has agreed to the exhumation.
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