TBILISI, Georgia – A Georgian court on Monday, February 17, sentenced one of former pro-Western president Mikheil Saakashvili’s prime ministers to five and a half years in prison for embezzlement in a case his allies denounced as political persecution.
The court found Vano Merabishvili, who served as premier for a few months before October 2012 elections, guilty of assigning fake government jobs to 22,000 people who actually worked on his party’s losing campaign.
Merabishvili served as secretary general of Saakashvili’s United National Movement (UNM), which was defeated by billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili’s Georgian Dream coalition.
Merabishvili’s lawyer accused the judge of acting under pressure from the prosecutor’s office and said he would appeal.
“This is nothing but political persecution aimed at destroying the main opposition party in Georgia,” Otar Kakhidze told Agence France-Presse.
Merabishvili, 45, has been in pre-trial detention since May 2013.
He was seen as one of Saakashvili’s closest allies and had also served as Georgia’s interior minister, a sensitive post responsible for most of the country’s security personnel and police.
Critics accused him of using disproportionate force against mass anti-government rallies in 2007 and 2009.
But he also led popular anti-graft and anti-crime campaigns that transformed the once corrupt police force and led to a dramatic drop in crime.
The judge also issued a $27,000 fine to Merabishvili’s co-defendant, former health and labour minister Zurab Chiaberashvili.
Saakashvili’s former security adviser Giga Bokeria, who is also a senior UNM member, said opponents of the regime were “being jailed for political reasons”.
“It’s a very bad day not only for justice, but also for democratic traditions in Georgia,” Bokeria told reporters.
“The current government — which ordered the verdict — will pay a high political price.”
However Tina Khidasheli, a lawmaker with Georgian Dream, said the accusations were “groundless”.
“There are no politically-motivated prosecutions in Georgia,” Khidasheli told the Agence France-Presse.
Dozens of Saakashvili’s allies have been placed under investigation on corruption and abuse of office charges since the end of the former president’s 10 year term in office.
His presidency of the former Soviet country was marked by a politically damaging 2008 war with neighbour Russia.
Allegations that investigations are being used to target its political opponents have sparked concern among western officials, but have been denied by the Georgian Dream government.
Ivanishvili became Georgia’s prime minister after the 2012 parliamentary election, but stepped down in November in favour of his hand-picked ally, 31-year-old Irakli Garibashvili.
Ivanishvili is still believed to wield massive influence over the nation of five million people, which had sought membership of both NATO and the European Union during Saakashvili’s term.
Georgian Dream leaders say they remain committed to EU membership, but they have focused on relations with Russia, on which much of the country’s trade depends.
Moscow broke off all contacts with Saakashvili’s government in 2008 but has said it would like to launch a political dialogue with the new regime. – Rappler.com
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