Two Sent to Pretrial Detention for Coercing, Bribing Late DEC Chair
The Tbilisi City Court satisfied on November 9 the prosecution’s motion for pretrial detention of two persons charged with offering a bribe, threatening and coercing late Isani District Election Commission Head Thedore Gobejishvili.
According to the Court, case files show that on November 6, the two persons, in the name of the United National Movement party, offered late DEC Chair a bribe of USD 50,000 to resign the post publicly and make statement on “supposedly rigged elections.” The Court said the persons threatened Gobejishvili with “imprisonment and physical abuse of his family members” for acting otherwise.
Police arrested the two persons after 43-year-old Thedore Gobejishvili was found dead in his house the next day, on November 7, a week after the hotly-contested October 31 parliamentary election.
Both persons were charged with Articles 339 (1), 152 (2) and 150 (2) of the Criminal Code of Georgia, involving bribery, threatening committed by a group and coercion by a group, respectively, while one of them was additionally charged under Article 236 (3) of the Criminal Code, involving illegal carrying of firearms, ammunition, explosive substances or equipment.
The pretrial session on the case will be held on December 30.
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