Summary

NAME: GEO VERDICT 20060111I TAPE: EF06/0032 IN_TIME: 10:37:12:16 DURATION: 00:02:13:19 SOURCES: AP/Police Video/Pool DATELINE: Tbilisi - 11 January/File RESTRICTIONS: SHOTLIST AP TELEVISION Tbilisi - January 11, 2006 1. Wide shot of Tbilisi courthouse, heavy snow falling 2. Wide pan of defendant Vladimir Arutyunian being led into court room 3. Media 4. Wide shot of courtroom, judge reading verdict, armed guard in foreground near cage 5. Judge reading 6. Guards in front of cage, Arutyunian in cage 7. Close-up Arutyunian in the cage 8. Wide shot of people in courtroom 9. SOUNDBITE: (Georgian) David Jugheli, Judge: "According to article 325 (of the Georgian Criminal Code) (Vladimir Arutyunian) is sentenced to life imprisonment. The Criminal Code of Georgia presumes that the extreme penalty overrides the inferior penalty. This means that Vladimir Arutyunian is sentenced to life imprisonment." 10. Arutyunian led out of courtroom Georgian POOL FILE: Georgia - May 2005 11. Various of US President George W Bush meeting Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili Police Video FILE: Tbilisi - 10 May 2005 12. Various STILL shots of suspect in crowd and grenade, NB: a large red arrow (inserted by police) points at suspect AP FILE: Tbilisi - 2005 13. Various of arrest, with Vladimir Arutyunian shown on police video on a gurney, following a shootout near his house 12. Various of evidence found in Arutyunian's apartment 13. Various of a previous trial session during which Arutyunian was exchanging notes with the defence lawyers because he had stitched his lips together in protest STORYLINE: A Georgian court on Wednesday convicted a man of attempted assassination for throwing a grenade at a rally where President George W Bush and Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili were appearing and sentenced him to life imprisonment. The court also convicted Vladimir Arutyunian for killing a policeman in the course of an operation to arrest him several weeks after the May 10 incident. Bush and Saakashvili were addressing a rally of thousands in the Georgian capital, Tbilisi from behind a bullet-proof barrier when the grenade, wrapped in a cloth, landed about 30 metres (100 feet) away. It did not explode, and investigators said it apparently malfunctioned. No one was harmed. Arutyunian was arrested in July on the outskirts of Tbilisi after a shootout that killed one officer. Arutyunian was later shown in television footage from a hospital bed admitting that he had thrown the grenade, throwing it high so it would explode without the bullet-proof glass blocking the shrapnel. Bush and Saakashvili learned of the incident only after the rally.