TBILISI: Georgian authorities have detained former prime minister Vano Merabishvili on corruption charges, the most prominent figure to be arrested yet in a slew of investigations against top allies of President Mikheil Saakashvili, prosecutors said yesterday.
Prosecutors in the region of Georgia’s second largest city Kutaisi said that Merabishvili and former health minister Zurab Chiaberashvili were being held in a case involving the alleged fictitious employment of party workers.
Merabishvili, a tough former interior minister who later served as premier, is the latest ally of the increasingly embattled Saakashvili to risk several years in jail over alleged wrongdoing while in office.
But his stunning arrest risks further rocking the former Soviet state as Merabishvili is considered to be Saakashvili’s most prominent ally, who leads his party and for years was the president’s right-hand man.
“Ivane (Vano) Merabishvili is under arrest. The actions he is accused of carry a prison sentence from seven to 12 years,” a representative of the Kutaisi prosecutor’s office said in televised comments. The representative, who was not named, said prosecutors would be seeking for both men to be remanded in custody ahead of their trials.
Saakashvili meanwhile slammed the arrests as political and said they could hurt Georgia’s image abroad. “What political consequences for our country, its international positions... for Georgia’s long-term outlook might follow the arrest of a former prime minister and a leader of the main opposition party?” he asked.
“Everyone must think about this,” Saakashvili said at a televised press conference.
The former prime minister is charged with fictitious employment of his United National Movement (UNM) party activists before last October’s parliamentary elections and misappropriation of a luxurious private villa through intimidation of the owner.
Chiaberashvili has been charged in the UNM case but Merabishvili appears so far to be the sole accused in the luxury villa investigation. The former prime minister is still leader of the UNM. Merabishvili’s lawyer, Zuran Chiviashvili, said in televised comments that his client “denied any wrongdoing”.
Prosecutors said the charges had been read out to the two men but the lawyer said the pair would be formally charged. Merabishvili served as Interior Minister from 2004 to 2012 and became one of the country’s most influential politicians by spearheading Saakashvili’s crackdown against official corruption.
In June 2012, Saakashvili named Merabishvili, seen by many as his closest political ally, as prime minister to improve his party’s chances in the parliamentary elections in October that year. AFP
