Parliamentary committee approves dismissal of opposition MP Nika Melia

 The opposition MP Nika Melia is now on bail in a separate case. Photo: IPN. 

Agenda.ge, 12 Dec 2019 - 11:05, Tbilisi,Georgia

The Georgian parliament's Procedural Issues Committee has approved the suspension of the MP status of United National Movement opposition member Nika Melia following the recent verdict of a court in the high profile Cartu Bank case. 

On December 2 former Prosecutor General of Georgia Zurab Adeishvili was sentenced to five years and three months in prison in absentia, while Melia was banned from taking public office for two years and three months in the case of Cartu Bank, involving the founder of the ruling Georgian Dream (GD) party Bidzina Ivanishvili.

Melia will also have to pay a 25,000 GEL [8,389 USD] fine for his role in the case as the former head of the State Enforcement Bureau back in 2012, when Ivanishvili announced his political plans to defeat the nine-year-governance of the UNM.

The 2012 case concerns “the plans of the UNM government to deliberately bankrupt the bank founded by Ivanishvili and hamper his political intentions,” the Georgian Chief Prosecutor’s Office says.

Now it is up to the parliament to decide whether or not to dismiss Melia as an MP.

Melia is now on bail “for incitement to violence” during the June protests in Tbilisi.