TBILISI, DFWatch – The head of a village near Tbilisi has been shot to death. A friend of the victim has admitted to have carried out the crime.

The body was found in a forest Monday morning.

The suspect says he was drunk and had a quarrel with the victim. After the murder he threw the body in a river.

The murder was reported Monday morning.

Beso Buzaladze was manager of Zhinvali village, 60 km from the capital. His position was symbolic and without real power. Such a position involves representing the government in a village.

Deputy Interior Minister Shota Khizanishvili says the accused Levan Badagadze confessed the crime at the police station, and an investigation has been launched.

He says Badagadze is a friend of Beso Buzaladze. They were at a dinner party and afterwards got into a quarrel, during which he killed Buzaladze with a gun, and then threw the body into a river.

Relatives of the victim say that there are four gun wounds on his body, one of them in the heart region.

The murder took place after the two had left a restaurant in Zhinvali. Buzaladze was taking the village manager home. Badagadze killed him in the woods near the village. According to his relatives, Badagadze was drunk.

According to statistics from the interior ministry published in April, there were 102 murders in 2011, of which 76 cases were investigated. There were 234 murder attempts, 207 of these cases were investigated.