Saakashvili Comments on Misspending Charges

Reacting to new charges against him, former President Mikheil Saakashvili said that the Georgian authorities’ “thirst for revenge and their rush to please their Russian friends have no limit.”

“Nothing seems to be able to prevent Georgian Dream leaders from tarnishing the reputation of our country,” Saakashvili wrote on his Facebook page on August 13.

Georgian Prosecutor’s Office charged Saakashvili with misspending of GEL 8.83 million (about USD 5.1 million) of public funds between September, 2009 and February, 2013.

“First they accused me of having stolen billions for myself and could not find the beginning of one Tetri of such billions. Now they are obliged to fabricate proofs of alleged 8 millions misspending, most of them being simple basic fakes,” Saakashvili says in his Facebook post in Georgian, English and Russian languages.

“Their imagination and their physical addiction to prosecution could be funny if they were not in charge of the fate of our beloved Georgia now,” he says. “While dumping the brotherly nation of Ukraine in these historic times, they focus their energy and resources in prosecuting and jailing Georgian patriots.”

Temur Janashia, former head of the Special State Protection Service, the agency from which funds were allegedly misspent, has also been charged. Janashia, who denies any wrongdoing, was charged on August 13 without being arrested.

This is the latest in series of criminal charges filed against Georgia’s former president over the past two weeks.

Saakashvili was charged late last month with exceeding official authorities in connection with the break up of anti-government protests on November 7, 2007 and raid on and “seizure” of Imedi TV. Court ordered pre-trial detention for Saakashvili in absentia on August 2 in connection to these charges.

Additional charges of exceeding official powers were filed against on August 5 in which the prosecution claims Saakashvili ordered beating up of an opposition lawmaker in 2005.