Court Sentences Ruling Party Member to 11 Years in Prison
By Gvantsa Gabekhadze
Thursday, May 3
Tbilisi City Court has sentenced the member of the Georgian Dream ruling party Zurab Neparidze to 11 years in prison for bribery.
The Prosecutor’s Office stated late on Tuesday that the judge fully shared their position to send the individual to prison.
Neparidze was detained last august and under the decision of Tbilisi City Court, he and his co-worker Ana Menteshashvili were sentenced to a three-month pre-trial detention.
Neparidze claimed he was innocent and his detention had political grounds.
Then Tbilisi Mayor Davit Narmania excluded the possibility of a political motive in Neparidze’s detention, as the latter “was not an influential political figure.”
“He was never distinguished with an active political life,” Narmania said.
He stressed the court and an investigation would establish the truth over the case.
The State Security Service of Georgia launched an investigation against the City Council member Neparidze based on an appeal of Neparidze’s bureau’s representative, who claimed the detainee was illegally taking a part of her salary.
Neparidze’s lawyer claims that the bureau’s staff was voluntarily giving a certain amount of money to Neparidze for different activities, as well as for communal expenses.
The prosecution stated that Neparidze’s son confirmed his father’s bribe-taking activity with the investigation.
Neparidze’s lawyer explained that the detainee’s son only confirmed that the staff was allocating money for Neparidze’s bureau activities.
