Melashvili and Ilychova released on bail
By Natalia Kochiashvili
Friday, January 29
Natalia Ilychova and Iveri Melashvili, 2 detainees in the Georgia-Azerbaijan ‘land forfeit’ high-profile case have been released on GEL20 000 bail each. A rally was held in the Tbilisi City Court in parallel with the hearing. Civil activists and opposition politicians said the detainees were political prisoners and should be released. Minutes before the hearing, the prosecutor in the case said they were requesting a change in the restraining order and were seeking bail instead of detention, stating that there was no further need for pretrial detention.
This does not mean that they are no longer threatened with imprisonment, the criminal case is still ongoing in this case. They were also banned from leaving the country before the court decision.
Melashvili, accused in the "Cartographers' Case", thanked his supporters and lawyers after his release. He said his arrest was linked to political issues.
According to the civil movement "Shame", 40 000 has been fully collected in 2 hours by citizens of Georgia to pay the bail.
The court dismissed Melashvili from the post at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs upon the motion of the Prosecutor's Office as well. The prosecutor stated that there was a danger of continuing criminal activities ‘due to previous actions’.
Aleko Elisashvili, the leader of the Citizens party, says this release is the result of negotiations with the ruling party. Elisashvili responded to the release of the detainees on bail on Facebook, saying ‘the negotiations have yielded results and this is a good thing; This is a step to continue the negotiations and to restore trust between the parties!’
Melashvili thanked all parties that stood by him, including Citizens, but announced that he doesn’t support anyone using the fact that they discussed this issue at the meeting and he was released, as a justification to enter parliament. “I do not want to be a part of this trade,” he said.
Mamuka Mdinaradze, the chairman of the Georgian Dream faction, spoke about the expected speculations due to the change of the measure of restraint for the accused in the cartographers' case before the trial.
"Aleko Elisashvili specifically returned to the topic of so-called political prisoners 3 or 4 times and we refused to talk about this issue at all four times,” Mdinaradze said.
Elisashvili together with Levan Ioseliani, met with the Speaker of the Parliament Archil Talakvadze and Mdinaradze on 22nd of January.
Recall that the prosecutor's office detained Melashvili and Ilychova, former members of the state commission on the Georgian-Azerbaijani border demarcation, on 7th of October. None of the detainees pleaded guilty and so far they have been remanded in custody, as a measure of restraint.
