Official Shot in Soviet Georgia; Guards Kill Assailant
MOSCOW — The acting president of the Adzharian autonomous region in Soviet Georgia was shot and wounded by his vice president, who then was killed by presidential guards, Tass reported Wednesday.
Only sketchy details of Tuesday’s shootings were reported by Tass in its dispatch from the Adzharian capital of Batumi, a Black Sea port near the Turkish border. It gave no motive for the attack.
Vice President Nodar Imiadze and two associates stormed into the office of acting President A. Abashidze, who was holding a meeting on how to aid victims of the Georgian earthquake, the Soviet news agency said.
Imiadze, who was armed with a submachine gun, wounded Abashidze and Georgian Deputy Prime Minister M. Omanadze, Tass said. The guards immediately killed Imiadze, Tass reported, and his two associates were arrested.
The Adzharian autonomous region is an area of about 386,000 people in southern Georgia.
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