Archpriest found guilty for plotting murder, sentenced to 9 years
Tweet 
Share
The archpriest who was detained for allegedly plotting the murder of a high-ranking clergy member of the Georgian Orthodox Church has been found guilty.
Tbilisi City Court announced its verdict for the case this afternoon and sentenced archpriest Giorgi Mamaladze to nine years behind bars.
The judge changed the qualification of the case though; initially, Mamaladze was charged with a premeditated attempted murder with mercenary purposes, which was an aggravating circumstance for him. Today, the judge removed the mercenary part from his charge and only found him guilty for premeditated attempted murder.
Mamaladze was found guilty for illegal possession of a firearm as well and he was sentenced to two years of imprisonment for this charge, but according to the Georgian Criminal Code, when imposing a final sentence for cumulative crimes, the more severe sentence shall absorb the less severe sentence, meaning the archpriest final sentence was nine years in prison.
Mamaladze was arrested on February 10 at Tbilisi International Airport, with police discovering cyanide on his person during a search.
Law enforcement agencies claimed the arrested archpriest was planning to travel to Germany, where Patriarch of Georgia Ilia II was undergoing a laparoscopic gallbladder surgery at a Berlin clinic.
The patriarch’s secretary Shorena Tetruashvili was also in Germany during the medical treatment of Ilia II. Later, law enforcers announced that Mamaladze was plotting to murder Tetruashvili.
The Prosecutor’s Office of Georgia today released the intermediate results of its ongoing investigation into an alleged plot to murder a high-ranking clergy member of the Georgian Orthodox Church.
The archpriest who was allegedly plotting the murder of a high-ranking clergy member of the Georgian Orthodox Church will be question on Monday, authorities say.
Georgian President Giorgi Margvelashvili attended a meeting today at the Patriarchate where clergymen and Patriarch Ilia II gathered to discuss the case of the murder plot against a high-ranking member of the Georgian Orthodox Church.
Georgia’s First Deputy Chief Prosecutor Mamuka Vasadze says that details related to an alleged murder plot against a high-ranking clergyman of the Georgian Orthodox Church will be revealed after Patriarch Ilia II returns to Georgia.
Georgian President Salome Zurabishvili made her first televised comments on the possible release of convicted archpriest Giorgi Mamaladze, after the Holy Synod requested her to do so.
Brother of convicted archpriest Giorgi Mamaladze has announced he and his family will begin releasing evidence of crimes against top Georgian clerics following a refusal to give amnesty by the president.
The European Court of Human Rights on Thursday published its judgment in the case of Giorgi Mamaladze, the convicted Georgian cleric sentenced to nine years in prison for plotting a murder and illegal possession of firearms, saying his right to fair trial had not been violated.