Arrested ex-official, lawyer of United National Movement party released
Goga Oniani was detained in 2014, under the Georgian Dream leadership. Photo: Irina Kalatozishvili.
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Former police official under the United National Movement (UNM) government and a lawyer of the UNM Goga Oniani has been released from prison after serving two years for abuse of authority, falsification of evidence, political persecution and illegal detention.
Tbilisi City Court sentenced Onliani to four years and six months to prison on November 7 2017.
However, a plea bargain was signed between the prosecution and Oniani in April 2017 and the sentence was decreased to two years.
Oniani will not be able to take any official post for two years and three months after being released.
The Georgian Chief Prosecutor’s Office reported that in 2011, when Oniani served as the deputy head of Gldani-Nadzaladevi police station in Tbilisi, he illegally detained Dao Print Manager David Shatirishvili for making t-shirts with the Georgian Dream logo, prior to the 2012 parliamentary elections.
The Prosecutor’s Office said that Oniani instructed his employees to plant drugs on Shatirishvili to charge him with drug-related crimes.
The UNM said that Oniani was a “political prisoner.”
See the details of the case here.
Tbilisi City Court has sent the former official of the Interior Ministry under the United National Movement (UNM) government, lawyer Giorgi Oniani to prison for four years and six months.
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