TBILISI. June 26 (Interfax-AVN) - The Georgian police are combing a Tbilisi district in search of British businessman Peter Shaw kidnapped on June 18, a source at the Georgian Interior Ministry told Interfax-Military News Agency.
The source said that Wednesday morning marked the beginning of the operation in Tbilisi's Didi Digomi district where in accordance with intelligence data the businessmen is being kept.
Shaw, 50, heads the Agrobiznesbank and represents interests of European businessmen in Georgia. He was kidnapped by criminals disguised as policemen in downtown Tbilisi on June 19.
"The Didi Digomi district is the place where all the three cars abandoned by the criminals were found after several hours in the wake of Shaw's kidnapping," the source said. This led the investigators to believe that the kidnappers have failed to take the hostage out of Tbilisi, so now Shaw may be kept in a flat or in a basement of one of the houses in the district. Data confirming the version was later available.
The source said that the police had photofits for the seven criminals participating in the kidnapping.
He noted that deputy head of Tbilisi's main police department David Kekua informed residents of the city live on State Television One about the beginning of the operation in order to avoid misunderstanding.