Son of Colonel Zaitsev abducted in Tbilisi identifies his father's body

The son of Russian Colonel Igor Zaitsev who was abducted in Tbilisi, has identified his father's body. This information was disclosed by the Coroner Centre of the Georgian Health Care, Labour and Social Protection Ministry.

According to Zaza Okruashvili, the head of the Centre, today Andrei Zaitsev identified his father's body in the morgue where a male corpse, which was found on the city's outskirts the other day, had been delivered.

The responsible authorities will fill in all necessary papers in the near future.

The mass media have been releasing contradictory information about this incident. At first, Andrei Zaitsev failed to identify the corpse, which had been lying in a forest for almost two weeks. The Georgian Interior Ministry also deflated the information it released about the discovery of Zaitsev's body.

Coroners disclosed a preliminary version envisaging that Russian officer Igor Zaitsev whose body was found the other day in a forest on the outskirts of Tbilisi, died because of multiple injuries of the head. This is the conclusion the experts drew following a preliminary examination of the corpse.

The examination also revealed a juncture in the right hand. Officials of the Coroner Centre of the Georgian Health Care Ministry are currently formalising the corpse identification.

Colonel Igor Zaitsev assigned to the Russian Trans-Caucasian Group of Forces /RTCGF/was missed on July 27th.

For the last time, the Colonel was seen in the Group Staff located in Tbilisi. When the working day was over, he went to see his mother. No one has seen him since then.

A search operation to find Igor Zaitsev involved not only the police, but also the Georgian Border Guard Department and the Health Care Ministry.

Igor Zaitsev is a Tbilisi native. In the late 1980s, he was a Deputy Military Commissar of the Soviet Republic of Georgia. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, he stayed in Georgia serving in the RTCGF.