Tbilisi City Court discussed the admissibility of evidence at the pre-trial hearing and decided to proceed to a substantive examination, Interpressnews reported at 13:34 on Monday. Prosecutor Ana Lekiashvili said there were no legal grounds to terminate the case, and the judge did not terminate it. Garibashvili was absent, as the agency had reported from the morning session, and the court heard the case in open session despite the prosecution’s request for the opposite, by the agency’s headline of 12:20.
Defence attorney Lali Aptsiauri told the court that the charge rests on the testimony of Juansher Burchuladze, the former defence minister, and of Vasil Mkheidze, a convicted relative of his. Burchuladze’s account is superficial and does not say how the money changed hands, she argued, Mkheidze’s is indirect because he did not witness the transfer, and both men “received concessions, and consequently, their sole objective was to secure their own freedom.”
Juansher Burchuladze handed 750,000 lari, half of a 1.5 million lari bribe, directly to Garibashvili and kept the other half, the two witnesses say, in exchange for procurement contracts, guarantees and political protection. The state suffered property damage of 6,985,255 lari as a result, by the prosecution’s case as Interpressnews summarises it.
The charge is under article 338, part 2, subparagraphs a and c, and part 3, subparagraph e, of the criminal code, bribe-taking in an especially large amount as part of a group by a holder of a state-political office, which carries 11 to 15 years. Garibashvili has already been convicted of laundering illicit income in an especially large amount, under a plea agreement that gave him five years and a fine of one million lari, the agency notes.
Juansher Burchuladze handed 750,000 lari, half of a 1.5 million lari bribe, directly to Garibashvili and kept the other half, the two witnesses say, in exchange for procurement contracts, guarantees and political protection.
The court calendar continues on Wednesday 21 October, when the Constitutional Court opens the hearing of a claim by 88 members of parliament to ban five opposition parties, with four Georgian Dream deputies presenting the ruling party’s position. A European Commission spokesman, Christian Wigand, called the lawsuits “a concerning instrumentalization of the judicial system” on Monday, Interpressnews reported.