Tbilisi court clears ex-Defense Minister Akhalaya of one count
TBILISI. Oct 31 (Interfax) - The Tbilisi City Court acquitted former Defense Minister and Interior Minister Bacho Akhalaya of humiliation and battery of seven Interior Ministry troops on Thursday.
Akhalaya was accused of beating seven members of an Interior Ministry special task force for supporting the then opposition coalition Georgian Dream.
Earlier this week, the Tbilisi City Court had sentenced Akhalaya to three years and nine months in prison for using disproportionate force in quelling a prison riot, in which seven convicts were killed and dozens of others injured in 2006, when he headed the corrections department.
In another criminal case opened recently against him, Akhalaya has been accused of providing comfortable and privileged conditions to people sentenced to prison terms in a case dealing with the murder of Tbilisi resident Sandro Girgvliani in 2006.
Akhalaya himself views all criminal cases opened against him as "political persecution" by the new Georgian authorities.
