Tbilisi Court sentences Gigi Ugulava to 9 years of imprisonment

Gigi Ugulava, the former Mayor of Tbilisi, has spent at liberty less than one day, and he is against imprisoned by the decision of the Tbilisi City Court.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on September 17, Gigi Ugulava, accused in a number of crimes, was released by the decision of the Tbilisi City Court based on the decision of the Constitutional Court pronouncing that no one could be kept in custody for more than nine months without judgment of guilt.

Today, Gigi Ugulava has come to the session of the Tbilisi City Court in the case of embezzlement of money intended for the election campaign.

At 11:00 p.m., the Court pronounced the verdict to sentence Gigi Ugulava to 9 years of imprisonment. However, since the courts' verdicts continue to be covered by the amnesty adopted by the Parliament in 2012 on the initiative of the faction of the "Georgian Dream" Party, the Gigi Ugulava's sentence is automatically reduced to 4 years and six months. The court also took into account the period of time spent by Gigi Ugulava in custody (one year and three months). Thus, according to the verdict, the former Mayor of Tbilisi is to spend in prison three years and three months.

Mikhail Machavariani, an MP from the "United National Movement" (UNM) Party, treats the verdict as illegal. "None of the documents in the case of 'Tbilservice' mentions the name of Gigi Ugulava. All decisions were made collectively, and this fact is reflected in the documents. The sentence is based on the testimony of only one person ­ Tariel Khizanishvili, who appealed exclusively to private conversations while testifying and who, of course, could not prove the fact of those conversations," Mikhail Machavariani has said.

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.