Prosecutor’s Office: Tbilisi mayor could interfere the investigation process

Tbilisi City Court granted the Georgian Prosecutions motion and suspended Giorgi Gigi Ugulava from the post of Tbilisi Mayor until the final decision in the criminal case.  

According to the statement of the Prosecutors Office today, the court made this decision in order to prevent Ugulava from further embezzlement  as far as there is a high possibility for this. In particular, Ugulava has been charged with embezzlement of GEL 48 million GEL (28 million USD) of public money. Accordingly, the prosecution assumes that if Ugulava will hold his position, the investigation will be obstructed.  

Moreover, the Prosecutors Office is going to appeal the courts decision about sentencing Ugulava with 50 thousand GEL fine instead of pre-trial detention.  

"There is a high possibility that Ugulava will impose pressure on the witnesses. His statement made yesterday serves as proof of this since Ugulava named them saying they are lying and also blamed particular people in pressuring the court, the Prosecutors Office stated.    

Tbilisi City Court argued that making the decision about not imposing detention for Ugulava, the court has taken in consideration that he is permanently living in Georgia, has a family, is closely related to legal proceedings in the country, and has not avoided to be present at the law enforcement agencies. As for the fine, the court explained that it was used as a preventive measure in order to ensure that Ugulava will not pressure the witnesses and prevent him from interference the process of evidence collection.  

Ugulava made a statement about his suspension through Facebook page yesterday.  

"Unfortunately, the court appeared in a difficult situation and suspended the Tbilisi Mayor, who had been elected by 55% of the city population, without giving him a possibility to answer the allegations, Ugulava wrote.  

According to the Judge-Speaker of the Tbilisi City Court, Eka Areshidze, the court is authorized to review the dismissal of an authority through oral hearing or without it. The court made the decision about Ugulavas dismissal without an oral hearing yesterday so the defense side did not have a possibility to present arguments.  

This has been already condemned by the United National Movement. They say the courts decision was a result of the pressure imposed by the prosecution.  

The executive director of a non-governmental organization ISFED (International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy), Nino Lomjaria also said that this has not been an independent decision made by the court. She said there is a very high public interest towards this case, as well as from the international organizations and considering this, the court has to proceed with the maximum transparency standards despite it is authorized to make decision without an oral hearings.