Prosecutor’s Office charges MP with abuse of power

A Georgian Member of Parliament has been stripped of his absolute immunity rights and has been charged with alleged abuse of power.

The Chief Prosecutor’s Office of Georgia issued one charge against MP Roland Akhalaia today.

Earlier rules stated MPs were unable to be officially questioned or charged, as they had absolute immunity and the Prosecutor’s Office were unable to charge any MP with a crime unless they gained approval from Georgian Parliament.

Georgian Parliament Speaker Davit Usupashvili urged MPs to "urgently” initiate a draft law that would rectify this loophole. In response, Parliament decided to amend the ambiguous law.

Today Akhalaia is being interrogated at the Samegrelo - Zemo Svaneti Regional Prosecutor's Office.

The charges against him are connected with alleged abuse of power when Akhalaia was the Regional Prosecutor of Samegrelo – Zemo Svaneti.

A statement released by the Chief Prosecutor’s Office stated in December 2009, Akhalaia demanded Georgian citizen Marina Esebua to transfer 150,000 GEL into the missing bank account of Anaklia Development Fund as a plea agreement for her husband, who was imprisoned.

The money was allegedly intended to be donated to charity however, it was transferred to the bank account of SANI Ltd – a private company belonging to Seriozha Gvaramia, who was closely connected to Akhalaia.

The Prosecutor’s Statement read: "As mentioned above, Roland Akhalaia acted with personal interest and obviously exceeded his official authority in the capacity of the Regional Prosecutor.”

The Office said the 150,000 GEL deposited by Esebua was entirely used for commercial purposes of SANI Ltd.

Using the same method of deceit, in December 2009 Akhalaia illegally demanded 60,000 GEL from the families of other people who had been accused of crimes and were in prison. Again, the sum was transferred into the account of SANI Ltd and used for commercial purposes, the Office claimed.

Parliament Speaker Usupashvili said the law needed to be amended to remove the loophole that gave MPs immunity, which made it impossible to charge them with committing a crime.

Usupashvili addressed MPs to "urgently” initiate a draft law that will cancel the 2010 changes and allow the possibility to remove the immunity clause from MPs and bring the Criminal Code in alignment with the Georgian Constitution.

Akhalaia, a United National Movement member, is the father of the country’s ex-Defence Minister Bacho Akhalaia, who is currently detained and ex-police high official Data Akhalaia, who was convicted last month on charges relating to torture and abuse of power.