Tbilisi- The body of Kakha Bendukidze, former economics minister of Georgia, who died in a London hotel last week, will be taken to Tbilisi by a direct flight on Nov. 20, Vakhtang Lejava, one of the founders of the Free University founded by Bendukidze, told reporters on Wednesday, Nov. 19.
Lejava said Bendukidze is expected to be buried in Tbilisi on Saturday, Nov. 22.
Over two weeks ago, Bendukidze, 58, underwent heart surgery in a Swiss clinic. After the surgery, he arrived in London, where he died of heart complications in a hotel on Nov. 13.
Georgian President Giorgi Margvelashvili has extended his condolences to Bendukidze’s family and loved ones.
From the late 1980s until mid 2004, Bendukidze did business in Russia. Specifically, he was general director of the holding United Machine-Building Plants.
In 2004, Bendukidze became Georgia’s economics minister at the invitation of Mikheil Saakashvili, who was then president of Georgia. He was Georgia’s state minister on economic reform coordination in 2004-2008 and he headed the Georgian government chancellery in 2008-2009. In 2007, he founded the Tbilisi Free University and the Georgian Agrarian University.
In May 2014, he accepted Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko’s offer to become a member of the economic and conciliatory council under the republic’s government.
