Property of Saakashvili and his family has been sequestered, says lawyer

Property belonging to Georgia's ex-president Mikheil Saakashvili and his family has been sequestered, says his lawyer Otar Kakhidze.

The lawyer made the announcement today and said he would give additional details to media at a press briefing at a later stage.

Kakhidze said the list of sequestered property included: Saakashvili’s house in Kvareli in Georgia's Kakheti region; an apartment belonging to his wife Sandra Roelofs in downtown Vake, Tbilisi; a Toyota Rav4 in the name of Saakashvili’s mother and a 500sqm piece of land in Natanebi village in western Georgia, which is the property of Saakashvili’s grandmother.

Saakashvili is hosting Moldovan PM Vald Filat at his Kvareli house in July 201. 

The defender of Saakashvili’s family called this action illegal but said there was no way to appeal against this decision in the Georgian courts.

The Chief Prosecutor's Office released a statement answering comments made today by ex-president Mikheil Saakashvili's lawyer.

The official statement said ex-president Saakashvili was charged with embezzling 8.8 million GEL public money.

"As Saakashvili is evading the investigation, there is reasonable doubt to believe that he intended to alienate, or somehow hide his and his family’s property to avoid financial responsibility. That was the reason why the Chief Prosecutor’s Office appealed to the court.”

Tbilisi City Court decided to sequester Saakashvili’s property and also the property of people connected with him on August 29 and Tbilisi Court of Appeal upheld the decision on September 3, according to the Prosecutors Office statement.

Investigators also published the sequestered property full list. See it at the end of the story.

At the end of August 2014 the Georgian prosecution announced it had launched proceedings to get Saakashvili named on an international Interpol wanted list. He is already named on Georgia’s national wanted list.

Saakashvili was sentenced in absentia to pre-trial detention by Tbilisi City Court on August 2 after being charged in relation to numerous criminal cases, including exceeding official powers, violent dispersal of an anti-governmental mass protest on November 7, 2007, unlawful raiding of Imedi television company by riot police, illegal take-over of property owned by late media tycoon Badri (Arkadi) Patarkatsishvili and the embezzlement of 8,837,000 GEL of state funds.

Full list of sequestered property, published by the Prosecutor's Office:

Saakashvili’s property

• 2,332 sqm piece of land in Kvareli;
• 1,316 sqm piece of land in Kvareli;
• 2,441 sqm piece of land in Kvareli;
• 1,207  sqm piece of land in Kvareli;
• 6,820 sqm piece of land in Kvareli;
• 682 sqm piece of land in Kvareli;
• 1,668 sqm piece of land in Kvareli;
• 2,637  sqm piece of land in Kvareli;
• A Honda Accord vehicle, 1998 model.

Sandra Roelfs’s property:

     154 sqm apartment in Tbilisi and 164 sqm mansard in Vake downtown at the same address

Giuli Alasania’s (Saakashvili’s mother’s) property:

• Three pieces of land in Kvareli -1,313, 251 and 334 sqm;
• 172.80 sqm apartment in Batumi, on the Black Sea coast in western Georgia; 
• 50 percent share in LTD "UG Bagi”.

Mzia Tsereteli’s (Saakashvili’s grandmother) property:

• 197 sqm apartment in downtown Vake, Tbilisi; 
• 500 sqm piece of land in Natanebi village in western Georgia;
• a Toyoya Rav4 vehicle, 2010 model.

Nikoloz Saakashvili’s (Saakashvili’s father) property;

       Toyota Landcruiser vehicle, 2014 model.