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Parliamentary Hearings on Wanted Ex-Forest Service Chief

Interior Minister Vano Merabishvili and General Prosecutor Zurab Adeishvili told lawmakers on December 27 that allegations that top level officials from law enforcement agencies were involved in an illegal transactions with the South Ossetian secessionist authorities over timber trade are groundless.


The allegations were first voiced by former chief of Georgia?s Forestry Department Bidzina Giorgobiani in March, 2005 before he fled Georgia, citing persecution from Interior Ministry officials.


Giorgobiani, who is now in self-imposed exile in Germany, is currently being tried in absentia by a Tbilisi court for alleged fraud and misuse of office while serving as chief of the Forestry Department.


His allegations, voiced in March 2005, returned to the Georgian media?s attention in early December when Nugzar Nachkebia, a former official from the state audit agency, the Chamber of Control, alleged that officials from the Interior Ministry and General Prosecutor?s Office were mounting pressure on him to fabricate a case against Giorgobiani.


In a TV interview in December Giorgobiani reiterated his earlier allegations that he was being pursued by law enforcers because he uncovered a scheme through which top-level Security Ministry officials were involved in the illegal export of lumber from South Ossetia in summer 2004 (Vano Merabishvili was the Security Minister at that time).


Merabishvili said it is ?illogical? to accuse Interior Ministry officials of being involved in illegal trade with timber from South Ossetia, because the Ministry of Environment is in charge of controlling trade with timber.


Merabishvili said that the Interior Ministry has no information about Giorgobiani?s whereabouts.


?As media reports say, he is in Germany, but his departure from Georgia is not registered so the Interior Ministry continues to look for him on the territory of Georgia,? Merabishvili said.


Giorgobiani is on Interpol’s international wanted list.


Merabishvili said, ?if Interpol confirms his presence abroad, the relevant legal procedures will be carried out.?


General Prosecutor Zurab Adeishvili told lawmakers that Giorgobiani ?has left the country.? But no one specified whether or not Georgia will seek his extradition.

This post is also available in: ქართული (Georgian) Русский (Russian)

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