Suspected Bush Attacker in Georgia Sews up Mouth

A man charged with the attempted murder of the U.S. President George Bush in Georgia has sewed up his mouth in what he says is a protest at a violation of his rights.

Vladimir Arutunyan is accused of throwing a hand grenade at Bush and Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili while they were addressing a public audience on Freedom Square in central Tbilisi on May 10. The grenade did not explode.

Arutuynan was arrested in Tbilisi on July 20 after a shootout with Georgian police that resulted in the death of Col. Zurab Kvlividze, the head of the Georgian Interior Ministry’s counterintelligence department.

The defendant came to the court hearing on Tuesday with his mouth sewed up. He claimed earlier his rights were violated. At the beginning of December, Arutunyan refused to testify in his case unless the representatives of Human Rights Watch attended the proceedings. He said the sentence had been “handed down even before the trial began.”