Foreign Media Responds to ex-Mayors Arrest
Prominent foreign publications have issued articles about yesterday’s Supreme Court verdict to imprison Gigi Ugulava, the former mayor of Tbilisi and presently one of the opposition leaders.
Reuters responded to the event, where the Georgian opposition leader Gigi Ugulava was sentenced to “38 months in jail on charges of misusing public funds” while he was the mayor of Tbilisi.
The article further notes that Ugulava was first jailed for an equivalent crime in September 2015. His initial sentence was four-and-a-half years but he was freed two years later after his punishment was reduced.
“A year later, Ugulava, mayor of Tbilisi from 2005-2013 and now one of Georgia’s most active opposition leaders, was sentenced again, to 15 months in prison, in the same case, but his sentence was considered to have been served,” the article reads.
“Dozens of ex-officials, including an ex-prime minister have been arrested on charges such as abuse of power and corruption since the Georgian Dream came to power in 2012 after defeating then-president Mikheil Saakashvili’s party in an election.
"Several criminal cases have been opened against opposition leaders amid mass protests against the government and Bidzina Ivanishvili’s ruling Georgian Dream party that began last summer, and several arrests have been made,” Reuters reports, adding that the opposition parties are yearning for a reform of the electoral system before the parliamentary elections in October.
Reuters also comments on Ivanishvili’s style of ruling, where critics accuse him of “running the country from behind the scenes.”
“Western countries have expressed concerns that the government of the former Soviet republic of 3.7 million people has used selective justice to persecute political opponents, an allegation that officials deny,” the article reads.
“Opposition leader Gigi Ugulava slams his sentence for graft” – Deutsche Welle wrote of Ugulava's arrest. In the subtitle, the German news outlet wrote: “The ex-mayor of Tbilisi claims the ruling is the work of oligarch Bidzina Ivanishvili.”
“Georgia's top court has slapped a prison term of over three years on one of the country's leading opposition figures, Gigi Ugulava.” the article reads.
Deutsche Welle writes that the billionaire business tycoon Ivanishvili served as the country's prime minister from 2012 to 2013. While he currently holds no public office, his critics and the opposition believe that he is the most powerful person in the ex-Soviet country and the genuine force behind the current PM, Gakharia.
“Ivanishvili's party faced criticism from abroad over the recent crackdown on civic protests. The November protests were caused by the Georgian Dream promising, and then rejecting, electoral reform of the system which tends to favor the ruling party.
In addition to Ugulava, several other major opposition leaders and independent media owners have either been put on trial or currently face prosecution. Ugulava has already served prison time for other graft charges,” the article reads.
The Supreme Court of Georgia found Gigi Ugulava, responsible for squandering 48 million GEL of public money from the Tbilisi Development Fund, while he was serving as the mayor of the capital city of Georgia, and handed him a judgment of three years and two months in prison.
By Beka Alexishvili