Saakashvili attending second trial on embezzlement of state funds

Photo: the Georgian Internal Affairs Ministry's video screenshot

Georgia’s former president Mikheil Saakashvili is attending a trial hearing today in Tbilisi City Court which concerns the embezzlement of 8,837,461 GEL in state funds for personal purposes while in office. 

The Prosecutor’s Office says that according to the agreement between Saakashvili and former head of Special State Protection Service of Georgia, Teimuraz Janashia, between 2009 and 2013, the state funds were used for expensive clothes for Saakashvili, massage and other aesthetic procedures, as well as for other individuals connected with the former president. 

The Prosecutor’s Office says that the money was skimmed from the budget of the Special Protection Service of Georgia in a secretive manner. 

Saakashvili, who was allowed to attend the second trial hearing since his arrest in Tbilisi on October 1, says that the case is ‘particularly shameful,’ noting that all seven charges against him are ‘politically motivated.’ 

Saakashvili’s lawyers demanded the removal of two prosecutors, Giorgi Mujiri and Archil Tkeshelashvili, from the case earlier today ‘for making politically biased statements.’ However, judge Badri Kochlamazashvili did not fulfil the demand, Agenda.ge reported.

Saakashvili says that he is attending trials in his own cases to ‘address the public,’ and not because he is waiting for fair judgements. He claims that the Georgian court ‘is fulfilling the government’s demands.’ 

© Photo :Photo: the Georgian Internal Affairs Ministry's video screenshot
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