Georgian opposition politician died from "natural causes"
Thursday, 14 Feb 2008 16:35
Post-mortem shows Badri Patarkatsishvili died from "natural causes". File licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 License
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UK police investigating the death of former Georgian presidential candidate Badri Patarkatsishvili have said the tycoon died from "natural causes".
The 52-year-old was found dead at his home in Leatherhead, Surrey, on Tuesday night, with police revealing his death was being treated as "suspicious".
Following yesterday's post-mortem however, a statement issued today said: "Surrey police can confirm that at this stage there is no indication that the sudden death of Badri Patarkatsishvili was from anything other than natural causes."
But a spokeswoman added further tests would be carried out in the coming weeks.
"Extensive toxicology testing is yet to be carried out," she said. "This will take a number of weeks."
An inquest into Mr Patarkatsishvili's death is due to be opened tomorrow at Woking coroner's court.
The billionaire businessman, who won 7.2 per cent of votes in the Georgian presidential elections won by Mikhail Saakashvili earlier this year, had been facing charges of organising an anti-government coup.
But Mr Patarkatsishvili, who made his fortune in post-communist Russia, had denied the accusations and claimed he was facing assassination from political opponents.
His death had evoked memories of the murder of Alexander Litvinenko, the former KGB spy killed by radiation poisoning in London two years ago.