Ex-ministers Adeishvili and Merabishvili found guilty of abuse of power

Tbilisi City Court has delivered guilty verdicts today against two high officials of the previous government of Georgia for crimes stemming from 2004.

The court ruled that ex-Chief Prosecutor Zurab Adeishvili and ex-Interior Minister Ivane Merabishvili abused power when they illegally and forcefully made two Georgian citizens involuntarily gift their private property to the state.

The property was Akura wine factory in eastern Kakheti region which their rightful owners had purchased after they took out a 2.6 million lari bank loan.

The court sentenced to Adeishvili to two years in prison, which, in accordance to Georgia’s Amnesty Law, was reduced to a year and six months. Merabishvili was sentenced to three years in prison, with amnesty reducing it to two years and three months.

Moreover both officials were banned from holding any public post for a year and a half.

Adeishvili was sentenced in absentia as he has been in hiding since he was charged for abuse of power with excessive use of violence, inhumane treatment, provoking a crime and fabricating evidence in several other separate cases as well.

As for Merabishvili, he is already in prison, serving his sentence for other crimes.

Merabishvili served as Prime Minister of Georgia for a few months but mainly Interior Minister of Georgia, while Adeishvili first served as Chief Prosecutor after which he held the post of Justice Minister under the previous Georgian government.