Ex-PM Merabishvili accuses Chief Prosecutor of threat

The former prime minister and ex-minister of internal affairs Vano Merabishvili claimed at his court hearing the Chief Prosecutor Otar Partskhaladze of using pressure and threats against him. Merabishvili said that Partskhaladze asked him to help the investigation to solve the ex-PM Zurab Zhvanias case, and also to provide the information about ex-President Mikheil Saakashvilis bank accounts, otherwise Merabishvilis conditions in prison would deteriorate, and his friends would be arrested.

According to Merabishvili, at about 1:30 am on Saturday, he was taken out of his prison cell with his head covered with his own jacket and was taken to the location which he thinks was a department of the penitentiary system.

Merabishvili said that there were two men in the room one of which was Chief Prosecutor Partskhaladze. "I also know the other man, I remember him because he used to work in police too, but I dont remember his name, Merabishvili said, assuming the man could be head of penitentiary system Dimitri Darbaiseli.

Ex-PM also explained that after the Chief Prosecutor started talking to him, the other man left the room, so that no one else attended the conversation.

"The Chief prosecutor set an ultimatum and told me that if I dont help prosecutors to solve Zhvanias case and if I do not provide prosecutors information about Mikheil Saakashvilis bank accounts, I will find myself in a very bad situation. On these two issues I explicitly expressed my opinion: lot of people may have many complaints about Saakashvili, but its completely senseless to accuse him of corruption. On the second case involving Zhvanias death, I expressed my surprise because this government is in power for a quite a long time already and they had access to all the case files and could not they determine that the investigation carried out by the previous authorities is faultless, Merabishvili said adding that "its impossible to find out anything that may contradict to what has already been concluded that Zhvanias death was an accident caused by carbon monoxide poisoning.

Merabishvili said that Chief Prosecutor Partskhaladze told him that if he would not agree on his proposal, his conditions in the prison would drastically deteriorate. "And, by the way, I cannot imagine how my conditions there can get even worse, he added.

"The Chief Prosecutor told me that they will anyway solve Zhvanias case and also said that Americans are helping them in that, Merabishvili said. "If I agree, they told me, they will allow me to take money I stole out of Georgia.

Merabishvili also said that there are several cameras near his prison cell. Besides, a lot of soldiers stand around all night long, so they could have seen that Merabisvili was truely taken out of his cell that night. "You also can check the city cameras. I can tell you the exact time when this happened: I was taken to that location at 1:30 and was brought back at 2:30.

After this statement, Merabishvili requested to leave the trial for half an hour in order to be able to discuss his next steps with his lawyers.

The ex-minister is charged with misappropriation of private property and embezzlement of 158,000 GEL ($90,942 USD) in 2009, when he served as interior minister. Merabishvili is also charged with exceeding authority with aggravated circumstances in connection to the dispersal of a peaceful protest rally in the center of Tbilisi on May 26, 2011.