Mikheil Saakashvili Welcomes Vano Merabishvili's Release

Former President of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili welcomes ex-interior minister Vano Merabishvili's release after almost 7 years of imprisonment.

"I welcome Vano Merabishvili's release after many years of imprisonment," he wrote on social media, adding that he is "proud of Merabishvili's strength and bravery."

“I am proud of his strength and bravery. I agree that Bidzina Ivanishvili's regime will definitely end. He will be out not because of our personal feelings, but because, like Vano said, our country needs progress and development.

"I call for reconciliation. We must be oriented to the future and not to the past,” Saakashvili wrote.

Former Interior Minister of Georgia left the penitentiary facility this morning, released after spending almost seven years there.

On February 17, 2014, he was sentenced to imprisonment after being found guilty of the brutal dispersal of the May 26 rally, hiding of evidence in the Sandro Girgvliani case, voter bribery, and physical abuse of the opposition MP Valeri Gelashvili. He was sentenced to 6 years and 9 months in prison.

Merabishvili denied all charges, saying they were politically motivated. The opposition claimed his imprisonment was a ‘witch hunt’ against the former government.

He was one of the most influential figures of the United National Movement.

The trial regarding the November 7 rally crackdown and the raid in Imedi TV is still ongoing against him. He is accused of abuse of power in these cases. However, as he claimed after release, "about ten more cases can be brought against him, but this can't break him."

By Ana Dumbadze 

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