Vladimir Arutyunian

Vladimir Arutyunian was born on 12 March 1978 in Tbilisi, Georgia to a family of ethnic Armenians. On 10 May 2005 he made an attempt to assassinate U.S. President George W. Bush and Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili.cite news
author=Elaine Quijano
title=Secret Service told grenade landed near Bush
url=http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/europe/05/10/bush.georgia/index.html
work=CNN
date=2005-05-10
accessdate=2007-03-22]

Grenade incident

On 10 May 2005, Arutyunian threw a RGD-5 hand grenade, wrapped in a red tartan (plaid) handkerchief, toward the podium where President Bush stood as he addressed a crowd in Freedom Square in downtown Tbilisi.cite web
url=http://www.fbi.gov/page2/jan06/grenadeattack011106.htm
title=The Case of the Failed Hand Grenade Attack: Man Who Tried to Assassinate President Convicted Overseas
date=2006-01-11
accessdate=2007-03-22
work=FBI.gov
publisher=Federal Bureau of Investigation] The grenade landed 18.6 metres (61 ft) from the podium, near which Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili, his wife Sandra E. Roelofs, Laura Bush, and other officials were seated. The grenade, however, failed to detonate.

Investigation

Georgian officials claimed that the grenade was a non-combative engineering type used in training, which either did not contain explosives or would have had to be very near the President to cause him any harm, and that it had been placed approximately 100 feet from the podium where Bush was speaking, in an attempt meant to scare the crowd and gain media attention.cite news
author=Elaine Quijano
coauthors= Ed Henry
title=Grenade near Bush 'was inactive'
url=http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/europe/05/11/bush.georgia/index.html
work=CNN
date=2005-05-11
accessdate=2007-03-22] However, after an investigation, Bryan Paarmann, head of the FBI office in Tbilisi, reported that it was a live grenade which had been thrown, hitting a girl in the crowd, which cushioned the impact and prevented the grenade from detonating.cite news
author=Nick Paton Walsh
title=FBI says hand grenade thrown at Bush was live
url=http://www.guardian.co.uk/georgia/story/0,,1487041,00.html
work=Guardian Unlimited
date=2005-05-19
accessdate=2007-03-22] Officials initially said that President Bush had been in no danger, but Bryan Paarmann of the FBI later identified the attack as endangering the President's life, saying "We consider this act to be a threat against the health and welfare of the President of the United States and the president of Georgia as well as the welfare of the multitudes of Georgian people who had turned out for this event."

Arrest

On 18 July 2005 Georgian Interior Minister Vano Merabishvili issued photos of an unidentified suspect and announced a reward of 150,000 Lari (USD $83,000) for information leading to the suspect's identification.

Police arrested Arutyunian after a shootout on 20 July 2005. During the skirmish Arutyunian killed a Georgian Ministry of Internal Affairs agent. He then fled into the woods in the village of Vashlijvari on the outskirts of Tbilisi. After being wounded in the leg, he was captured by Special Forces soldiers about an hour later. He confessed in the hospital as staff treated him for gunshot wounds.cite news
author=Terry Frieden
title=Alleged would-be Bush assassin indicted
url=http://edition.cnn.com/2005/LAW/09/07/bush.assassin/
work=CNN
date=2005-09-07
accessdate=2007-03-22]

The city court of Tbilisi sentenced him to life imprisonment on 11 January 2006.cite news
author=Ryan Chilcote
title= Bush grenade attacker gets life
url=http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/europe/01/11/georgia.grenade/
work=CNN
date=2006-01-11
accessdate=2007-03-22]

References

External links

* [http://annointed.net/images/news/vladimiraruyunian.jpgImage of Vladimir Arutyunian]