Ex-Interior Minister Merabishvili leaves prison, vows ‘end of current gov’t’
Vano Merabishvili says that he will make a decision on which opposition party to join in the coming days. Photo: IPN.
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Former Interior and Prime Minister of Georgia, one of the most influential figures of the United National Movement (UNM) government, Vano Merabishvili left prison earlier today after serving almost seven years, stating that he is returning to politics and ‘guarantees’ the end of the current Georgian Dream leadership.
Standing at Matrosovi prison Merabishvili told the media that the opposition is united around key demands. However, his close friends are now in different opposition parties.
I will meet all of them and make a decision [which party to join] afterwards,” Merabishvili said.
He stated that by the end of the year the Georgian Dream government 'will be overthrown' and Matrosovi prison gate ‘will open wide for political prisoners.’
Merabishvili said that he may face further charges. However, ‘this will not stop me.’
The opposition says that Merabishvili was a political prisoner which was not confirmed by the European Court of Human Rights. Photo: IPN.
Merabishvili was detained in May 2013, a year after the Georgian Dream coalition defeated the United National Movement in parliamentary elections, and has been serving a sentence for several convictions, including for the brutal dispersal of an opposition rally on May 26, 2011, the murder case of Sandro Girgvliani and the attacking of the opposition MP Valeri Gelashvili.
The sentence for the charges was six years and nine months in total, as the charges were merged.
Merabishvili may face further charges for the raid on Imedi TV in 2007 and the dispersal of another rally on November 7, 2007.
The UNM says Merabishvili is a political prisoner, which was not confirmed by the European Court of Human Rights.
Georgia’s former Interior and Prime Minister Ivane (Vano) Merabishvili is scheduled to leave prison on February 20, 2020.
The Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe has released its conclusion on the execution of the 2017 judgement of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) on ex-Interior Minister of Georgia Ivane Merabishvili, which ruled that the imprisonment of the latter was fair but Merabishvili’s rights were violated in a certain situation.
The Georgian Ministry of Corrections has published the conclusions of a German lab regarding the health condition of imprisoned former Interior Minister Ivane (Vano) Merabishvili, amid speculations of Marabishvili’s lawyers that the former official has been poisoned in prison.
The Ministry of Corrections has stated today that former Interior Minister Ivane (Vano) Merabishvili has been transported to Mediclub hospital in Tbilisi in the morning for additional blood checks, in order to dispel his lawyers’ speculations that Merabishvili could have been poisoned in prison or that he may have cancer.
Political parties and politicians have given different evaluations to the release of former influential figure Vano Merabishvili from his seven-year imprisonment, as well as his promise given at Matrosovi prison earlier today that the current state government ‘will be overthrown’ by the end of the year. Merabishvili, who served as interior and prime minister under the United National Movement government, has not yet decided which opposition party to join.
Georgian Prime Minister Giorgi Gakharia has responded to the release of former Interior Minister Vano Merabishvili and said that the “United National Movement [the party Merabishvili belonged to] is the past, we should think about the future.”
Former top figure of the United National Movement (UNM) government Vano Merabishvili, who left prison earlier this year, says that he has ‘no plans to enter parliament or take any governmental post’ after the October parliamentary elections.
One of the leaders of the United National Movement opposition (UNM) Nika Melia says that one of the former most influential figures of the party, former Interior and Prime Minister of Georgia, Vano Merabishvili, will not be on the UNM’s party list for the October 31 parliamentary elections, stating that Merabishvili has no ‘moral right’ to be in politics.
The CoE Committee of Ministers has urged for a more effective investigation to be conducted into the detention of former Interior and Prime Minister of Georgia Vano Merabishvili, who was released from prison earlier this year.
The Georgian Ministry of Internal Affairs on Thursday confirmed it had launched an investigation following reports of assault on Vano Merabishvili, one of the most influential figures of the previous United National Movement Government who served as the country’s Interior Minister for almost eight years.
Nugzar Tsiklauri, a member of the United National Movement opposition party, on Wednesday accused Vano Merabishvili, the former Interior Minister from the party during its time in Government, of ongoing “shadowy interference” in developments in the UNM and domestic politics in general.
Georgia’s former Interior Minister Vano Merabishvili on Wednesday claimed ensuring the release of the imprisoned former President Mikheil Saakashvili was one of the goals of the public protests held this week in Tbilisi over the controversial bill on transparency of foreign influence.
Nika Melia, the former Chair of the United National Movement, the largest party in the domestic Georgian opposition, on Monday refused to become involved in a potential new board of the party and related talks, citing “informal influence” of David Kezerashvili, the wanted former Defence Minister of Georgia, and Vano Merabishvili, the former Interior Minister under the UNM Government, over party affairs.