Court Sentences Bachiashvili to 4.5 Years for Illegal Border Crossing
Tbilisi City Court sentenced on September 30 Giorgi Bachiashvili, a former associate of Georgian Dream founder Bidzina Ivanishvili, to four and a half years in prison after Judge Jvebe Nachkebia found him guilty of illegally crossing the state border.
Bachiashvili is already serving an 11-year prison term after being convicted of embezzling a large sum of cryptocurrency from Ivanishvili. The new sentence will be absorbed into his existing one and will not be added cumulatively.
Judge Nachkebia also sentenced Shota Karumadze, who drove Bachiashvili from Georgia to Armenia, to four and a half years in prison for assisting the illegal border crossing.
The rulings stem from Bachiashvili’s escape from Georgia in March, when he cited “credible information” that his life would be in danger if imprisoned. Bachiashvili was arrested in May following what he said was his abduction from abroad involving the then head of the State Security Service of Georgia, Anri Okhanashvili.
In July, Bachiashvili reported being beaten in jail. Prison authorities later suggested that prison staff, inmates, and Bachiashvili himself may have coordinated the incident, a controversy that led to the resignation of Georgia’s Special Penitentiary Service chief, Bezhan Obgaidze.
On September 29, the Prosecutor’s Office of Georgia charged Bachiashvili’s parents with assisting him in laundering up to USD 3.5 million of the illegally acquired funds. The authorities earlier froze their bank accounts.
The money-laundering investigation comes as the ruling Georgian Dream party tightens anti-corruption laws, including measures that bar individuals convicted of financial crimes from leaving the country until restitution is made and allow recovery of embezzled funds from the convict’s relatives.
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