Member of the Party for Georgia, Tsalenjikha Sakrebulo MP Sentenced to Imprisonment for Fraud Charges
By Natalia Kochiashvili
Thursday, March 31, 2022
Tbilisi City Court sentenced Gela Abuladze, a member of the ex-prime Minister Giorgi Gakharia’s Party for Georgia and a member of the Tsalenjikha City Council, to imprisonment as a preventive measure.
The other 8 people accused in the case were sentenced to GEL6,000 bail by the court.
The accused Sakrebulo MP does not plead guilty. The party assessed the detention as political revenge.
Abuladze was arrested by the State Security Service on March 28. According to the Anti-Corruption Agency of the State Security Service, based on a court ruling, a member of the Tsalenjikha Municipality Sakrebulo was arrested by a group with a preliminary agreement on a large-scale fraud case.
The investigation revealed that in the first half of 2020, a member of the City Council contacted the representative of the mayor of Tsalenjikha municipality in the administrative unit of the village Etseri and demanded that persons and relatives close to him falsify the ownership document.
The agency alleged that in 2020 Abuladze conspired with an employee of the Tsalenjikha Mayor’s office to fraudulently register nine state-owned plots of land, totaling 100,083m2 and worth GEL406,250, into private ownership of Abuladze’s relatives and acquaintances.
The investigation went under Article 180 (2a, 3b) of Georgia’s Criminal Code, fraud committed by more than one person with a preliminary agreement in large quantities and under Article 341, Forgery by an official, envisaging imprisonment from 6 to 9 years.
“We would like to remind you that the State Security Service launched an investigation into this case before the elections to put pressure on Gela Abuladze and his family members, which they failed to do, and we have talked to the members of our political team many times. The Dream government is not tolerating the lost elections in the municipalities and is trying to change the political situation and the choice of the citizens through illegal arrests, bribery, sabotage of the municipalities, etc.,” wrote Berdia Sichinava, a member of the party.
According to him, the authorities have not yet investigated the fact of physical attack and threatening with a firearm on the leader of the Samegrelo regional organization - Malkhaz Toria and his minor son, who arrived at his father's grave.
Abuladze was elected in the October 2021 elections to the Tsalenjikha Sakrebulo in Georgia’s western Samegrelo region, which emerged as one of a few opposition-led Municipal Councils after the municipal elections in the lead-up to which, For Georgia, along with other opposition outfits, repeatedly accused the Georgian Dream Government and law enforcement agencies of persecuting and pressuring its candidates.
Currently, in the 27-member Tsalenjikha Sakrebulo, Georgian Dream and United National Movement each have 11 councilors, Lelo party has 1 , For Georgia has 3, and 1 member is independent.
Recall that chair of For Georgia, Giorgi Gakharia formed his own party after resignation from the post of the Prime Minister of Georgia in February 2021 over the forthcoming detention of United National Movement leader Nika Melia.
