Suspects in Georgia-Azerbaijan ‘land forfeit’ case released on bail
Iveri Melashvili (L) repeated during today’s trial that he does not admit to the charges. Photo: IPN.
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Two detainees in the Georgia-Azerbaijan ‘land forfeit’ high-profile case Iveri Melashvili and Natalia Ilichova have been released on 20,000 GEL bail each earlier today.
The Georgian Chief Prosecutor’s Office requested the bail, stating that there was no need for pretrial detention.
Melashvili and Ilichova will not be able to leave the country before the court delivers a verdict in the case.
The Prosecutor's Office said that they have already completed investigation into the case and that there is ‘genuine evidence’ that Melashvili and Ilichova were involved in the border agreement with Azerbaijan under the United National Movement leadership which led to the forfeit of 3,500 hectares of lands against Georgia’s interests.
We have requested they be allowed out on bail because there is evidence that the detainees committed the crime and there is no need for now to leave them in pretrial detention. The suspects can wait for the verdict outside prison. Now the investigation will be focused on uncovering the individuals who demanded signing the border agreement which was against Georgia’s interests,” Prosecutor Mikheil Sadradze said.
On January 21 the Georgian Chief Prosecutor’s Office stated that Melashvil ‘was forced’ by his superiors to sign the border agreement back in 2006 and released a video recorded in Melashvili’s working room.
The case concerns the sections of Georgia’s 6th century David Gareji monastery complex. Photo: Nino Alavidze/Agenda.ge.
An official statement of the Chief Prosecutor’s Office says that Melashvili, the former head of the Department for Border Relations with Neighbouring Countries and Ilichova, former Chief Inspector of the Land Border Protection Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, hid the original map of 1938 from the border commission members (which was chaired by Melashvili) and instead used a 1970-80 map in the process of demarcating the border.
The suspects do not admit to the crime and say that the map was ‘worthless’ and was rejected in 2006-2007.
The opposition says that Melashvili and Ilichova are ‘political prisoners.’
One of the leaders of the European Georgia opposition party Sergi Kapanadze said that the Georgian Dream government ‘is likely to have plans to detain some former officials.’
Since the collapse of the Soviet Union back in 1991, out of its four neighboring states Georgia has agreed upon its borders only with Turkey.
Only two-thirds of the state border has been agreed upon with Azerbaijan so far, which on several occasions triggered tension in David Gareji back in 2019.
The prosecution says that a motive has been identified in the high-profile Georgia-Azerbaijan border case, which saw two former officials detained last year for allegedly withholding materials from a border agreement with Azerbaijan under the United National Movement government in 2006-2007.
Two former officials in the high-profile Georgia-Azerbaijan border case, Iveri Melashvili and Natalia Ilichova, have been denied bail earlier today by Tbilisi City Court despite the presence of 214 guarantors, including politicians. Melashvili and Ilichova have been accused of withholding materials from a border agreement with Azerbaijan that, according to the Chief Prosecutor’s Office, led to the forfeit of about 3,500 hectares of lands against Georgia’s interests.
Georgian Deputy Foreign Minister Lasha Darsalia says that Azerbaijan has provided no arguments against the 1938 map which was recently obtained by Georgia to resolve border issues between the two states.
Georgian President Salome Zurabishvili says that Georgia-Azerbaijan made no border agreement when she served as Georgia's foreign minister between 2004 and 2005, under the United National Movement leadership.
Georgian Public Defender Nino Lomjaria says that there is no genuine evidence that former officials Iveri Melashvili and Natalia Ilichova had the intention to transfer sections of Georgian territory to Azerbaijan back in 2006 under the United National Movement government.
Two suspects in the Georgia-Azerbaijan ‘land forfeit’ case - Iveri Melasvhili and Natalia Ilichova - have appealed to the European Court of Human Rights. The Georgian Democracy Initiative announced earlier today that the applicants complain for the violations of several articles of the European Convention of Human Rights.
Police are investigating an attack on a suspect in the Georgia-Azerbaijan ‘land forfeit’ case Iveri Melasvhili and the crew of opposition-minded Mtavari Arkhi TV which occurred earlier today in David Gareji.
Irakli Kobakhidze, the candidate for the position of the Prime Minister of Georgia, on Wednesday said the case of the disputed area of the David Gareji monastery complex “could only be resolved” through dialogues with a strategic partner - Azerbaijan.