$168,000 offered, but ex-Defence Minister Okruashvili still denied bail

Tbilisi City Court has left former Defence Minister Irakli Okruashvili in pretrial detention, declining the offer of his lawyer on the payment of 500,000 GEL ($168,000) for bail. 

Okruashvili is charged with incitement to violence during the June 20 rally in Tbilisi, which he denies. 

Lawyer Mamuka Chabashvili said that there were no grounds to leave Okruashvili in pretrial detention as there was no threat for him to make any influence on witnesses. 

There are six witnesses against Okruashvili and all of them are law enforcers,” Chabashvili said. 

He stated that the seizure of a passport and visits to the law enforcement agencies would be sufficient to have been used against Okruashvili, which a judge refused to agree. 

The video released by the Interior Ministry, involving Okruashvili at the rally.

Okruashvili  was denied bail on July 27, 2019, which he appealed. 

• Okruahsvili served as prosecutor general, interior and defence ministers under the United National Movement government.
• After opposing former president and ally Mikheil Saakashvili back in 2007, he was detained on corruption charges. 
• Okruashvili left for France several days after he was released, where he lived until 2012.
• He returned to Georgia in winter 2012, shortly after the Georgian Dream leadership defeated the nine-year-rule of the United National Movement leadership.
• Currently he chairs the Victorious Georgia opposition party and is “fighting to regain his shares” of the Rustavi 2 channel.