Defense demands release of Georgian ex-premier Merabishvili on bail
TBILISI. Aug 12 (Interfax) - Lawyer Giorgi Chiviashvili demands that the prosecutor's office drop charges of abuse of power, in relation to the dispersal of an opposition rally on May 26, 2011, against his client, former Georgian prime minister Vano Merabishvili, and release him on bail.
"A report of the U.S. company, Densus, on the dispersal of the May 26, 2011 opposition rally in Tbilisi was published on Sunday. The report has been compiled at the instruction of and with the funding of the U.S. Department of State. The report clearly states that the Georgian police acted within the framework of law. There were several cases of abuse of power by 15 police officers, but all of them were later punished. Proceeding from the report we demand that charges of abuse of power be dropped against Merabishvili and that he be freed from preliminary confinement on bail," Chiviashvili said on Monday.
He added that, according to the report, participants in the opposition rally were armed with sticks and Molotov cocktails and some even carried legal firearms. Out of 1,000 protesters some 200 offered resistance to the police.
"As is said in the report, the organizers of the rally several minutes before the dispersal left the scene in cars and rammed through the police cordon killing one police officer and a passerby. Five more officers were seriously injured," the lawyer said.
The former prime minister and interior minister was arrested at the end of last May. He was charged with corruption and abuse of power. Tbilisi city court satisfied the motion of the prosecutor on the Merabishvili's preliminary confinement.