Son says corpse of mother being held for ransom

(14 Apr 2005) SHOTLIST 1. Mid shot woman walking through cemetery 2. Close-up woman 3. Dug out empty grave 4. Close-up gravestone 5. SOUNDBITE (Georgian) Amiran Lomidze, Grave digger "I personally dug out the grave. The son and the relatives of the dead woman were all gathered here. We saw that the grave was empty." 6. Mid shot Lomidze walking in background with gravestones in foreground 7. Set up of Robinzon Nemsitsveradze, son of dead woman 8. SOUNDBITE (Georgian) Robinzon Nemsitsveradze, son of dead woman "I received the last call on April 3. Then I want to check the grave, and it was empty. I got no calls afterwards." 9. Close-up grave 10. Mid shot cemetery STORYLINE Relatives of a Georgian woman who died in February say grave robbers told the family that they dug up her corpse and would hold it for ransom until her son's debts were paid off. Robinson Nemsitsveradze said he began receiving anonymous phone calls several days after burying his 85-year-old mother two months ago. The callers said they were owed a sizable debt by Robinzon's younger brother and that they were holding their mother's body until the family paid 150,000 US dollars, Nemsitsveradze said. Nemsitsveradze said that initially his mother's grave appeared undisturbed, but in early April, after repeated calls, he asked the cemetery gravedigger to dig up the grave. They found that the coffin with the body inside was gone. Nemsitsveradze said he's still refusing to pay the kidnappers' ransom. Police in Kutaisi, about 300 kilometres (180 miles) northwest of the capital Tbilisi, said they were investigating the administrator of the cemetery. Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork Twitter:   / ap_archive   Facebook:   / aparchives   ​​ Instagram:   / apnews   You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/you...