Ex-Tbilisi Mayor freed from 50,000 GEL bail
By Messenger Staff
Wednesday, February 24
The former Mayor of Tbilisi, Gigi Ugulava, has been freed from his bail of 50 000 GEL.
Prosecutors plan to appeal the decision and claim that his mother-in-law's apartment should become state property.
Gigi Ugulava’a lawyer Beka Basilaia has presented another motion during the legal process. He wanted the case to be attached with PACE President Pedro Agramunt’s statement saying there are political prisoners in Ukraine and Georgia.
The judge did not satisfy the motion.
The trial will resume on March 1.
The first charges against Ugulava date back to 2013 when he was still Mayor of Tbilisi. The charge concerned two separate cases of alleged misspending and embezzlement of a large amount of public funds, as well as money laundering.
In December 2013, additional charges were filed against the former official that involved the alleged misspending of 48.18 million GEL of city budget money in 2011-2012.
Charges related to alleged money laundering when Ugulava led the UNM campaign in 2014 were filed against him in July 2014 and through a court order he was sentenced to pre-trial detention.
Ugulava was still in pre-trial detention in July 2014 when the Chief Prosecutor’s office filed a new set of charges against him, involving exceeding official power in connection with the violent dispersal of the November 2007 anti-government protests, as well as the raid on and seizure of Imedi TV station and property owned at the time by late tycoon Badri Patarkatsishvili.
