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Body of former Georgian prime minister to be exhumed

TBILISI, Georgia, Jan. 16 (UPI) -- The remains of former Georgian Prime Minister Zurab Zhvania will be exhumed for further examination into the cause of his death, officials said Thursday.

Zhvania, who played a key role in Georgia's 2003 Rose Revolution, died in February 2005, just a year after he took office, RIA Novosti reported.

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Although investigators ruled his death accidental due to a carbon monoxide leak in his apartment, Zhvania's family alleged that it was politically motivated.

Prosecutors reopened the case in 2012 after the opposition Georgian Dream coalition won a majority of seats in the country's parliamentary elections that year.

"The issue of exhuming Zhvania's body has been raised, and Georgia's chief prosecutor's office plans to involve a Swiss laboratory in this process," current Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Gharibashvili said Thursday.

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