Court Remanded Ex-Audit Chief

Shortly before the arrest Molashvili held a news conference and alleged that he had incriminating  documents, proving Saakashvili’s and Zhvania’s links to corrupt transactions.

Sulkhan Molashvili, the former chairman of the State Audit Agency and close ally of ex-President Shevardnadze, was hospitalized after suffering from a heart attack. Upon his release from the hospital, the court in Tbilisi remanded him to jail on July 16.

However, Georgian Justice Minister Giorgi Papuashvili later denied that Molashvili suffered with heart attack and alleged that “Molashvili simulates.”

Molashvili, who is accused of alleged misappropriation of 3 million Lari (USD 1,57 million) was expected to be released after he made a payment of USD 265,000 but was instead ordered to return to prison, were he is serving a 3-month pre-trial sentence. Tbilisi chief prosecutor Valeri Grigalashvili said that Molashvili will be released only after “he reimburses 3 million Lari.”

Lawyers for Sulkhan Molashvili, as well as some human rights organizations, claim that the ex-chief of the State Audit Agency is a political prisoner. They also claim that Molashvili was subjected to torturer in the pre-trial detention center.

An alternative forensic medical examination of Molashvili, carried out by independent expert Maia Nikolaishvili, found that Molashvili’s body bears injuries caused by beatings, electric shock, and cigarette burns.

However, law enforcers dismiss the torture allegations. Valeri Grigalashvili admitted on July 13 that Molashvili’s body bears signs of mistreatment; he alleged,however, that the injuries were either “self-inflicted” or the result of violence inflected on the prisoner by fellow detainees. 

Mayas Eorsi, who chairs the Parliamentary Assembly of Council of Europe’s monitoring group on Georgia, and Georgian MP Elene Tevdoradze, chairperson of the Human Rights Parliamentary Committee, visited Sulkhan Molashvili at his pre-trial cell on July 7.

“What we saw was terrible. We are in shock. There are terrible conditions in the cell,” MP Elene Tevdoradze told reporters after visiting Molashvili in the jail.

Matyas Eorsi warned the Georgian authorities that they should not repeat the same mistakes as the country’s pervious authorities in the realm of human rights.

Sulkhan Molashvili was arrested on April 22, 2004. The Chief Prosecutor of Tbilisii said after the arrest that Sulkhan Molashvili was accused of misuse of power and illegal financial transactions.
 
Sulkhan Molashvili dismisses these allegations, saying that the charges are politically motivated. During ex-President Eduard Shevardnadze’s reign Molashvili was one of the harshest critics of President Mikheil Saakashvili and Prime Minister Zurab Zhvania.

Shortly before the arrest Molashvili held a news conference in Tbilisi and alleged that he had incriminating documents, obtained while serving as Georgia’s Chief State Auditor, proving Saakashvili’s and Zhvania’s links to corrupt transactions. However, he has not yet unveiled these documents.

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