Tbilisi City Court will announce its verdict on the $16.7 million money laundering case involving co-founders of Georgian TBC Bank and current leaders of Lelo opposition party Mamuka Khazaradze and Badri Japaridze tomorrow. 

Today’s trial was noisy, with Khazaradze dismissed from the trial and then allowed back. 

After today’s trial Khazaradze reiterated that the case is ‘politically grounded’ and that he has been offered by the founder of the ruling Georgian Dream party Bidzina Ivanishvili ‘to put an end to the case.’ 

“He made the offer to owe him. The case has nothing to do with money laundering,” Khazaradze said. 

Both suspects say that ‘no laundering’ took place back in 2008 as the country’s Prosecutor’s Office say this, and that they were charged as Ivanishvili wanted to hamper the building of Anaklia deep sea port in western Georgia. 

Khazaradze says that the building of the port aimed to strengthen Georgia’s geopolitical role and was against Russian interests. 

He and Japaridze were officially charged in the case in the summer of 2019 and only after they decided to enter politics. 

The prosecution says that they are awaiting a guilty verdict for Khazaradze and Japaridze.