Georgian Prime Minister Zurab Zhvania's death was, as initially thought, caused by carbon monoxide poisoning, a justice ministry expert said on Friday after an autopsy. The report appeared to confirm that Zhvania, 41, who was found dead in a Tbilisi apartment together with a friend, had died accidentally from fumes from a faulty gas heater.
"The cause of death is intoxication from carbon monoxide," the expert, Levan Samkharauli, told reporters. There was no external damage to the body, he added.
Zhvania was the senior figure in a trio of leaders who spearheaded a "Rose Revolution" of street protests that toppled veteran leader Eduard Shevardnadze in November 2003 and then installed West-leaning President Mikhail Saakashvili in power.
His death has robbed Saakashvili of a steadying hand to help run the turbulent ex-Soviet country of 5 million people.
Saakashvili has said he will take over the running of the government in the short term, underlining the dearth of suitable candidates of the stature to replace Zhvania.
Faulty gas heaters have been the source of many fatalities in Georgia, a country with a small industrial base and few natural resources that suffers from a crumbling infrastructure.
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