Saakashvili Warns Adjara not to Turn into a “Haven for Criminals”
President-elect Mikheil Saakashvili said today the Adjarian Interior Ministry was informed in advance regarding Tbilisi”s intention to arrest former chief of the Railway Company Akaki Chkhaidze in Adjarian capital, where he was undergoing medical treatment.
Akaki Chkhaidze, who also was a member of the Shevardnadze election bloc in the fraudulent November 2 parliamentary polls, faces tax evasion and embezzlement charges. He was detained in Batumi on January 16 by the police unit dispatched in the Adjarian capital from Tbilisi.
Saakashvili said that the local authorities of the Autonomous Republic opposed Chkhaidze”s detention.
“We will not permit similar actions any more. Adjara is an integral part of Georgia and the laws there are the same as in entire Georgia. We are ready for a dialogue with the Adjarian authorities, but everybody should know, that Georgia is not a “banana republic” and its jurisdiction is spread on the entire territory of the country,” Mikheil Saakashvili said at a news briefing on January 16.
“Each criminal who will try to hide in Adjara will be arrested like we did with Chkhaidze. The criminal gangs in Georgia will be eradicated,” Saakashvili said.
“Former officials who have stolen money from the Georgian people will be brought to justice. Some of them hide abroad. All of them should be extradited to Georgia,” the President-elect said, referring to former governor of Kvemo Kartli region and Shevardnadze”s ally Levan Mamaladze, who allegedly is in Russia. Mamaladze also faces embezzlement charges.
Saakashvili also said that those officials who will return money, “stolen from the people and the country”s budget, will be pardoned like it happened in case of Merab Zhordania [President of the Georgian Football Federation].”
Interior Minster Giorgi Baramidze said on January 15 that Zhordania will be released, as he has already paid to the budget 742,000 Lari (up to USD 340,000). Merab Zhordania was arrested on December 12 and charged with misappropriation of 750,000 Lari.
