Former Poti mayor sentenced to eight years imprisonment for embezzlement
Kakulia does not admit to the crime and his lawyer says that they will appeal the decision in the Kutaisi Court of Appeal, calling the judgement ‘unreasonable.’ Photo: Reginfo.ge.
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The former mayor of the Black Sea port city of Poti, Irakli Kakulia, has been sentenced to eight years of imprisonment by Zugdidi City Court on December 25 for bribery, embezzlement, forging documents and abuse of power.
Former deputy mayor Levan Chochia and former head of the architecture department Zurab Kurua were sentenced to seven years' imprisonment, while another former deputy mayor, Nikoloz Grigolia, was sentenced to two.
Seven others involved in the case were released on bail in 2019.
The case concerns the renovation of the coastline in Poti in 2015 and 2017 when Kakulia served as mayor, during which contractors embezzled about 528,821 GEL, while the former official took a bribe of 170,000 GEL to ‘conceal the crime,’ the Financial Ministry reported.
Kakulia, along with other former employees of City Hall, was charged with embezzlement of state funds on December 11, 2019, while serving as head of the City Assembly (Sakrebulo).
Kakulia does not admit to the crime and his lawyer says that they will appeal the decision in the Kutaisi Court of Appeal, calling the judgement ‘unreasonable.’