Ex-President Saakashvili summoned to be questioned

Former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili has been summoned to the Prosecutor's Office of Georgia to be questioned as a witness on a number of high-profile cases. The ex-leader has been summoned to appear at 1pm on March 27 at the Chief Prosecutor’s Office. 

The Office stated Saakashvili would be questioned his role in pardoning four people convicted in the murder of Sandro Girgvliani - one of the most notorious cases in the modern history of Georgia. The men were pardoned by Saakashvili on Nobember 24, 2008, two years after Girgvliani was killed in suspicious circumstances.  

Twenty eight-year-old Girgvliani was tortured and killed in February 2006. His remains were found near Okrokana cemetery. At the time, Davit (Data) Akhalaia, the former head of the Constitutional Security Department and now imprisoned Vano Merabishvili, former Internal Affairs and Prime Minister, and several other ex-high officials were linked to the case. 

"Since our investigations into a number of cases have reached the final phase, the Prosecution is facing the necessity of questioning the former president as a witness in order to fully inform the society about those cases,” the Prosecutor’s Office stated today. It listed a number of cases Saakashvili will be questioned about. This includes: 

The invasion of high ranking officials in an independent Imedi television building in February 2008 where the police organized a raid and the television was illegally acquired. Furthermore, he will be asked about various illegal action towards late tycoon Badri (Arkadi) Patarkatsishvili, which resulted in a top-secret agreement between the Patarkatsishvili family and then Georgian government on July 6, 2011. The secret document was published in January by the new Government of Georgia; 

Embezzlement of slightly more than 8.8 million GEL state money of the Special State Security from 2009 to 2012; 

The criminal case about  the death of ex-Prime Minister Zurab Zhvania in order to establish the circumstances surrounding the case; 

Forceful deprivation of shares of TV Mze and Rustavi 2 from their legal shareholders in June 2004;  

The case where two people were wounded (Levan Amiridze and Koba Otanadze) and one was killed (Gia Krialashvili) in the so-called Mukhrovani Mutiny during the arrest operation in May 20, 2009; 

The case involving embezzlement of state assets (the Agrarian University) in February 24, 2012. (Ex-Economy Minister Kakha Bendukidze has already been questioned on this case). 

Saakashvili’s order on October 31, 2012, where his uncle Temur Alasania obtained priority to illegally privatized state property – Bezeki Ltd; 

The case of transferring state-owned real estate worth $3 million USD in a symbolic price - 1 GEL - to the founder of Adjarian TV 25 with the aim of controlling it in the pre-election period in February 2012;

Organizing artificial bankruptcy of the Cartu Bank (which is owned by the former PM and businessman Bidzina Ivanishvili) by high-ranking officials while the property mortgaged by the bank was sold in a ‘hypocritical way’.