Former Defence Ministry high official extradited to Georgia to face murder charges
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A former high official of Georgia’s Interior and Defence Ministries who was wanted by Interpol has been extradited from the Netherlands to Georgia.
Giorgi Dgebuadze (otherwise known as "Mastera”) was declared wanted by an Interpol Red Notice Application for murder and excess of official power relating to an incident in 2006 where three people were killed.
Dgebuadze returned to Georgia last night.
An international search warrant for Dgebuadze was announced via an Interpol Red Notice in April 2013 after Georgia’s Chief Prosecutor’s Office said he had absconded from investigative authorities and fled from the territory of Georgia.
After establishing his whereabouts, the Prosecutor’s Office addressed authorities in the Netherlands with the request to arrest and send Dgebuadze to Tbilisi.
"Under the request of the Prosecutor’s Office, the Court of the Netherlands found Giorgi Dgebuadze’s extradition admissible. Based on the aforementioned, the defendant was extradited to Georgia and the court proceedings on the case will continue in his presence,” the Prosecutor’s Office said.
The Office also released video footage showing Dgebuadze being read his rights and the charges against him by police upon his arrival at Tbilisi International Airport last night.
From 2005 Dgebuadze served as head of the Second Unit of the Constitutional Security Department of the Interior Ministry before being appointed head of the Main Unit for Security and Special Tasks of the Military Police Department under the order of then-Defence Minister Bachana Akhalaia.
The charges against Dgebuadze stem back to 2006.
He faced charges relating to excess of official power and participation in the murder of three young men at the Navtlughi station in rural Tbilisi on January 12, 2006.
The same charges were also laid against Davit Akhalaia, then-head of the Constitutional Security Department and other higher officials of the same department.
Tbilisi City Court has already delivered guilty verdicts against the other co-perpetrators of the same case.
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Today Tbilisi City Court sentenced two former top police officials of the United National Movement government to 9-12 years behind bars for exceeding official powers, murder and fabricating evidence in a notorious case that claimed three lives in 2006.
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Two Georgian citizens who were wanted by Interpol have been extradited from France to Georgia. An official statement released by the Prosecutor’s Office of Georgia reads that V.G. was declared wanted by Interpol Red Notice Application for murder, while T.J. was declared wanted for illegal purchase, transportation and sale of drugs in especially large quantities.