Jailed ex-aide to Georgia kingpin claims he was snatched abroad
TBILISI: An ex-aide to Georgia's powerful tycoon Bidzina Ivanishvili said on Thursday that he had been snatched while abroad, forcibly flown back to Georgia, and arrested on his former boss's orders.
Giorgi Bachiashvili, the former head of Ivanishvili's Co-Investment Fund, fled Georgia in March amid mounting legal troubles following a falling out with the country's most powerful man.
The case has intensified scrutiny of the role of Ivanishvili — who wields enormous influence behind the scenes — in Georgian politics.
Georgia's state security service said Tuesday it had arrested Bachiashvili, a dual Georgian-Russian national, inside Georgia, near the border with Azerbaijan, following an anonymous tip.
But speaking at a court hearing Thursday, Bachiashvii said he had been blindfolded and held incommunicado for two days in an undisclosed country before being forced onto a plane and flown back to Georgia 'in complete violation of the law.'
'Acting on Bidzina Ivanishvili's orders, Georgian officials resorted to banditry and brought me back to Georgia through abduction,' he said.
While abroad Bachiashvili, had been sentenced in absentia to 11 years in prison for alleged embezzlement and money laundering.
'I consider myself absolutely innocent of all charges. Today it became clear that I am a personal prisoner of Ivanishvili,' he told the court.
His lawyer Robert Amsterdam has denounced the case as politically motivated and accused the Georgian authorities of abusing international legal tools to persecute dissenters.
Widely seen as Georgia's key power broker, billionaire Ivanishvili is the founder and honorary chair of the ruling Georgian Dream party.
He holds enormous sway over the party and the government, including the formal power to nominate its choice of prime minister.
Georgian Dream, in power for more than a decade, has been accused by critics of steering the country away from the West and toward Russia — a claim it denies.
Georgia was gripped by mass protests for weeks last year following a disputed parliamentary election in October and the government's subsequent decision to freeze its EU membership bid.
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