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Court of Appeals Upholds Davit Kezerashvili’s Sentence

The Tbilisi Court of Appeals has upheld the first instance verdict against Davit Kezerashvili, former Minister of Defense of the United National Movement government and founder of the “Formula” television company, ordering him to pay 5,060,000 euros to the Ministry of Defense.

The panel of judges of the Court of Appeal recently announced the decision and ordered Kezerashvili to pay an additional 3,000 GEL as a fine to the state budget. As for another defendant in the same case, Alexander Ninua, former head of the Defense Ministry’s procurement department, the appeal did not satisfy the Defense Ministry’s claim against him. The agency was ordered to pay Ninua the 5,000 GEL he had paid for the appeal.

On September 30, 2021, the Ministry of Defense applied to the court for compensation for the damage caused by the “criminal acts” of Kezerashvili and Ninua, after the Supreme Court on September 7 had overturned the lower court’s decision in the case of Davit Kezerashvili and found him guilty of embezzling more than 5 million euros. As for Ninua, he had already been convicted.

According to the Ministry of Defence, Davit Kezerashvili and Alexandre Ninua transferred a large amount of money to the offshore company for training. However, the ministry did not receive this service.

At the time, Kezerashvili himself denied the charges against him. His lawyer, Giorgi Gelkhauri, said that the government was trying to seize Formula TV’s assets and stifle freedom of expression. The Ministry of Defense itself denied the accusation, saying it had no plans to freeze Formula’s assets.

Kezerashvili was head of the financial police from 2004 to 2006 and then served as Defense Minister until 2008. He later moved into the private sector.

In 2012, after the change of government, several criminal cases were brought against him. He was acquitted in absentia in two of them. In 2014 the French courts and in 2016 the British courts refused to extradite him to Georgia.

Also read:

29/03/2022 – UNM-Era Defense Minister, Procurement Head Ordered to Pay EUR 5 Mln

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

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