Former Tbilisi Mayor found guilty of exceeding authority

The Tbilisi City Court has found former mayor of Tbilisi Gigi Ugulava guilty of exceeding official powers and sentenced him to one year and two months in prison.

However, other sentences by the Tbilisi Court of Appeals against Ugulava have absorbed the sentence and he has not been sent to prison.

According to the Georgian penalty system, lesser penalties are absorbed by greater penalties.

Initially Ugulava was charged for the embezzlement of 48 million GEL of public funds in 2010-2011. The charge was filed against him in 2013.

However, today the judge of the Tbilisi City Court re-qualified the charge and found Ugulava guilty of exceeding of official powers.

Five other former officials have been charged in the case. However, only the former head of the Tbilisi Development Fund Giorgi Sabanadze was sentenced to eight years in prison.

Sabanadze is wanted by Georgian law enforcers.

• Ugulava was detained in 2014. Before his detention the court deprived him of the right to serve as Tbilisi Mayor due to various charges against him.
• In September 2015 he was sentenced to four years and six months in prison after being found guilty of misspending 1.4 million GEL public funds when he was Tbilisi mayor.
• The Court of Appeals re-qualified the misspending charges and found him guilty of exceeding official powers. The court sentenced him to one year and four months in prison.
• Ugulava was released in January 2017.
•  He served as Tbilisi mayor between 2005 and 2013.