Vladimir Arutyunian

While in prison in February 2010, Arutyunian converted from the Armenian Apostolic Church to Islam.

On 11 January 2006 a Georgian court sentenced Arutyunian to life imprisonment for the attempted assassination of George Bush and Mikheil Saakashvili, and the killing of Officer Kvlividze. In September 2005, a United States federal grand jury also indicted Arutyunian, and could ask to extradite him if he is ever released. He is not eligible for parole, and could only be released under a presidential pardon, but such pardons are almost never granted in Georgia. This means that Arutyunian will most likely spend the rest of his life in prison.

On 10 May 2005, Arutyunian waited for the United States President George W. Bush and Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili to speak in Tbilisi's central Liberty Square. When Bush began speaking, Arutyunian threw a Soviet-made RGD-5 hand grenade, wrapped in a red tartan handkerchief, toward the podium where Bush stood as he addressed the crowd. The grenade landed 18.6 metres (61 ft) from the podium, near where Saakashvili, his wife Sandra E. Roelofs, Laura Bush, and other officials were seated.

On 18 July 2005 Georgia's Interior Minister Vano Merabishvili issued photos of an unidentified suspect and announced a reward of 150,000 lari (US$80,000) for information leading to the suspect's identification.

On 20 July 2005, acting on a tip from a hotline, police raided Arutyunian's home where he lived with his mother. During an ensuing gunfight, Arutyunian killed the head of the Interior Ministry's counterintelligence department, Zurab Kvlividze. He then fled into the woods in the village of Vashlijvari on the outskirts of Tbilisi. After being wounded in the leg, he was captured by Georgia's anti-terror unit.

He joined the Democratic Union for Revival party led by Aslan Abashidze in January 2004, but soon after left the organization's ranks. He joined the Revival party in the same month Mikheil Saakashvili became president of Georgia, and had led Adjara in a crisis by refusing to obey the central government authorities. Saakashvili and his party were considered to be pro–United States, while Abashidze and his party were considered to be pro-Russia. The crisis had ended in later 2004 without bloodshed.

Vladimir Arutyunian (Georgian: ვლადიმერ არუთინიანი ; Armenian: Վլադիմիր Հարությունյան ; born 12 March 1978) is a Georgian national who attempted to assassinate United States President George W. Bush and Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili by throwing a hand grenade at them on 10 May 2005. The attempt failed when the grenade did not detonate. He was later arrested and sentenced to life in prison.

Vladimir Arutyunian, a Georgian citizen and ethnic Armenian, was born on 12 March 1978 in Tbilisi, Soviet Georgia. Arutyunian lost his father at an early age and lived with his mother, who was a stall-holder at the local street market. They lived in one of the poorest suburbs of Tbilisi. After completing his secondary education, he had no fixed occupation.