Tornike Rizhvadze, the former head of the government of the Autonomous Adjara Republic in west Georgia, is in hospital with a gunshot wound to the chest, the Georgian interior ministry announced on July 7.

Medical staff at the Sagarejo hospital in Georgia’s eastern Kakheti region reported that Rizhvadze was in a stable but serious condition after undergoing emergency treatment for a lung injury.

According to the interior ministry, an investigation has begun under Article 114 of Georgia’s criminal code, which relates to incitement to suicide.

According to local outlets, Aleksi Akhvlediani, the director of the Georgian Maritime Transport Agency, has been detained for “negligent storage of a firearm”.

The shooting incident reportedly took place at Akhevelediani’s mother’s house, where opposition-leaning channel TV Pirveli reported Rizhvadze had been staying.

After seven years in the post, Rizhvadze resigned as head of the government of Adjara in early April 2025 via a Facebook post. He gave no reason for his departure other than it was time for him to try “something new”.

Suicide note?

Shortly after Rizhvadze’s hospitalisation on the morning of July 7, several media outlets aligned with the incumbent Georgian Dream government, including TV Imedi, shared details of a letter allegedly written by Rizhvadze before his suicide attempt and discovered by medical staff in his clothes.

However, according to opposition-aligned Adjara-based news outlet Batumelebi, doctors at the Sagrejo hospital in Kakheti did not pass on any letters to journalists for examination.

The First University Clinic in the Georgian capital Tbilisi, where Rizhvadze was transferred later in the day on July 7, has also denied handing over any letter to media representatives.

In the note published by Imedi, Rizhvadze cites his motivation behind taking his own life.

“There is only one reason: I am accused of corruption and protecting “profits of profiteers” – which is exactly what… I have fought against all my life,” Rizhvadze’s alleged suicide note reads.

“My friends, colleagues, family members — all acted on my orders and instructions. They are all innocent. I take responsibility with my own life,” the letter published by pro-government outlets continued.

Later in the note, Rizhvadze appealed to members of GD, including party founder and honorary chair Bidzina Ivanishvili and Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze to protect his family in the wake of his death.

Government critics argue that GD-aligned media deliberately shared the letter allegedly written by Rizhvadze to stamp out any speculation that Kobakhidze or other GD party members might be in some way responsible for his death.

Further, in his note Rizhvadze stressed that Akhvlediani had had “nothing to do with” his attempted suicide, and that he himself had “quietly taken the gun” he had found at Akhvlediani’s house.

“Don’t perform an autopsy on me,” Rizhvadze requested in his letter.

Significantly, GD MP Tengiz Sharmanashvili has raised questions about the authenticity of the letter, stating that further examination would need be carried out before the author of the document could be confirmed.