Tbilisi Mayor’s Office Employee Detained for Bribery

Otar Abesadze, employee of Tbilisi City Hall, has been arrested by officers of the Anti-Corruption Agency of the State Security Service (SSS) of Georgia on charges of accepting bribes.

The SSS says that in May 2017, Abesadze promised a certain citizen an accelerated issue of a permit for the opening of café Tivi and the relevant documentation, and in return received $ 3,000. 

On July 12, Tbilisi City Hall released a statement regarding the issue, stating the government of the capital will not tolerate any fact of crime without subsequent response and will cooperate with the investigation. 

“We call on all our employees not to abuse their power and not to damage the dignity of other civil servants working in the City Hall," the statement reads.

Irakli Lekvinadze, Deputy Mayor of Tbilisi, says that Abesadze’s detention is regrettable.

“We should wait for the results of the investigation to find out the truth. The approach of Tbilisi City Hall is generally very simple. The relevant services should respond to the violations of the law and as such Tbilisi City Hall will cooperate with them,” he added.

If convicted, Abesadze faces a possible sentence of 6 to 9 years. 

Thea Morrison