Tuesday, February 3, 2026

Georgian prisoner escapes by feigning illness

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Actor Aidan Quinn’s character overpowering the prison doctor in the 1987 film ‘Stakeout’.
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Otar Varamashvili, the escaped prisoner.

TBILISI, DFWatch–It could have been a scene from a Hollywood movie, the moment when a prisoner escaped from Rustavi City Court on Wednesday.

According to reports, the escapee was in the waiting room for defendants when he said he was feeling sick.

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Georgia halts military exercises at sea following fatal diving accident

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Defense Minister Levan Izoria. (Interpressnews.)

TBILISI, DFWatch–Georgia is halting exercises at sea as there are no certified instructors, Defense Minister Levan Izoria said Wednesday.

A search for two military divers who went missing during an exercise was called off yesterday.

The soldiers went missing

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Number of hospitalized after wedding poisoning scandal rises to 40

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PM Kvirikashvili visiting some of the poison victims at Marneuli hospital on Tuesday. (Interpressnews.)

TBILISI, DFWatch–About 40 people – 22 of them children – are still in hospital after being poisoned during a wedding in Georgia.

Nearly 200 people were poisoned on Monday at a wedding in Sadakhlo, a village in the south of Georgia near the border with Armenia.

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Court issues detention order for policeman charged in suicide case

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The court building in Kutaisi. (Interpressnews.)

TBILISI, DFWatch–A court in Georgia on Tuesday issued an order to detain a policeman who is accused of having caused the suicide of a 22-year-old man.

The wanted police officer Goderdzi Tevzadze has gone into hiding, and Kutaisi City Court therefore issued the ruling ‘in absentia’.

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200 wedding guests poisoned – 21 still hospitalized

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21 wedding guests remain hospitalized after the mass food poisoning. (Interpressnews.)

TBILISI, DFWatch–Almost 200 people were taken ill with food poisoning at a wedding in the south of Georgia on Monday, 28 of them children.

The mass poisoning took place in the village Sadakhlo, near Marneuli.

The affected wedding guests mostly complained about feeling sick and disoriented.

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