Prosecutor’s office charges 13 for fraudulent acquisition of state-owned land
The fraudulent registration led to them taking possession of 79,232 square metres of land belonging to the state and worth ₾122,700 ($44,465). Photo: Nino Alavidze/agenda.ge
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The office of prosecutor general of Georgia has charged 13 individuals, including a former representative of the mayor of eastern Sagarejo municipality, for "fraudulent acquisition of state-owned land, aiding in fraud and abuse of official authority" in the Kakheti region, the state body announced on Monday.
The announcement said the investigation had found that as part of the nationwide land registration reform the group had applied to the national public registry agency and requested registration of real estate located in the municipality.
During the registration procedure, the representative of the mayor of the municipality, through an abuse of official authority, provided false information to employees of the national public registry agency to favour” fellow residents of the locality, the body said.
It noted that in their attempt to “fraudulently obtain property rights”, the individuals had “lied in favour of each other” in confirming that, as of September 20, 2007, they had owned adjacent pieces of real estate.
The fraudulent registration led to them taking possession of 79,232 square metres of land belonging to the state and worth ₾122,700 ($44,465).
The prosecutor's office said the defendants were cooperating with the investigation and had admitted the crime.
Reforms in the penitentiary and probation systems under the Justice Ministry, as well as land registration initiative in municipalities across the country were mentioned by Minister Rati Bregadze in his 2021 report on the state body’s work on Friday.
Georgia is moving into the next phase of systematic land registration which will cover the Tetritskharo, Gardabani, Kareli, Gori and Sagarejo municipalities of the country, announces the Georgian Prime Minister Giorgi Gakharia.
More than 600,000 private owners have officially registered their lands in Georgia since 1 August 2016, as the government offered them simplified and cheap procedures, Georgian Prime Minister Mamuka Bakhtadze stated today during the presentation of the Land Registration Interim Report.
Georgia is removing the barriers facing private owners who want to officially register their land.
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The Georgian prosecutor general’s office on Monday said it had filed charges of abuse of power against a former law enforcement officer after the European Court of Human Rights confirmed ill treatment and flaws in the domestic investigation of a 2014 incident that saw police officers assault an individual in Tbilisi.
The Prosecutor General’s Office of Georgia on Friday said it had arrested a director of a private company and a former employee of the Construction Supervision Department of the Municipal Development Fund of Georgia for fraudulent obtaining of a “large amount of state funds” and bribery.
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