Armed Group Charges Brought Against Okruashvili
The Georgian prosecutor’s office said on June 28, that it had brought charges against exiled ex-defense minister Irakli Okruashvili related to “formation of illegal armed group.”
In unrelated case, Okruashvili, who was granted political asylum by France in April 2008, was found guilty of “large-scale extortion” by the Tbilisi City Court in March, 2008 and sentenced to 11 years in prison in absentia.
On June 23, 2011 the Georgian Interior Ministry said, that its counter-intelligence service arrested a group of men affiliated with Okruashvili, who is a co-founder of opposition Georgian Party, and charged them with formation of illegal armed group, allegedly intending to provide military back-up to the return of Okruashvili back to Georgia during the street protest rallies in late May.
The Georgian Party said that the allegation "is fiction" and "fabrication"; it also said that the police “planted” arms in houses of its activists arrested in connection to the case.
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