Ex-Georgian Economic Minister Bendukidze questioned for nearly 12 hours
TBILISI. March 19 (Interfax) - Kakha Bendukidze, a former Georgian economy minister and currently chairman of the monitoring board of the Agrarian University, was questioned at the Chief Prosecutor's Office for nearly 12 hours in a case related to illegal privatization of property belonging to this educational institution.
"I was questioned for 11 and a half hours, during which I had to answer 15 quite sizeable questions, which only partially concerned privatization and were chiefly related to the process of the university's reorganization," Bendukidze told journalists in the early hours of Wednesday.
He said the investigators were quite polite with him.
"I gave exhaustive answers to all questions, but I don't know what I can be charged with," he said.
Bendukidze's defense lawyer Otar Kakhidze had denied the possibility that his client could be indicted.
Bendukidze returned to Georgia, his home country, from Russia in 2004 at then President Mikheil Saakashvili's invitation to serve as economy minister. Some time later, he became the Georgian state minister for coordination of economic reforms. In 2008-2009, he headed the government secretariat. He was remembered while serving in these positions for following the principle "everything can be sold except conscience."
After his resignation, Bendukidze started investing in the Georgian education sector and founded the Free University. In 2011, Bendukidze privatized the Georgian Agricultural University for about $5 million on the condition that he would preserve its specialization and would make investments in it, after which the institution was transformed into the Agrarian University.