Georgian Dissident Found Dead in Britain

A Georgian opposition leader living in Britain was found dead today outside London, the Guardian reports. Badri Patarkatsishvili, a 52-year-old businessman and former presidential candidate involved with last year's anti-government protests, died of an apparent heart attack; police are treating the death as "suspicious." Patarkatsishvili, worth an estimated $11 billion, was under investigation on charges of attempting to overthrow Georgia's government.

Patarkatsishvili left Georgia in November for Britain, where he hired the UK's former attorney general as his lawyer. He had told the AP in December that he suspected the Georgian government might try to murder him. According to Boris Berezovsky, a London-based billionaire Russian dissident, Patarkatsishvili was not ill but complained about his heart when they met yesterday. (More Badri Patarkatsishvili stories.)