Opposition politician: plea deal with former PM was politically agreed

An opposition politician, Dimitri Tskitishvili, on Tuesday claimed that a plea agreement involving former prime minister Irakli Garibashvili had been pre-arranged and was the result of a political decision rather than a genuine anti-corruption effort.

Tskitishvili said the punishment imposed on  Garibashvili was determined by the ruling party founder and honorary chair Bidzina Ivanishvili, and did not reflect an objective assessment of guilt or innocence.

He alleged that the arrangement involved an agreed combination of imprisonment and financial payments, which he said was later presented to the public as a fight against corruption. “In reality, this is not a fight against corruption,” Tskitishvili said.

Earlier, the Prosecutor’s Office announced that it had reached a plea agreement with Garibashvili. Under the deal, the former prime minister was sentenced to five years in prison for an offence under Article 194, Part Three of Georgia’s Criminal Code.

Prosecutors said an additional fine of one million lari was imposed and that money obtained through criminal activity, seized during a search of his residence, would be confiscated in favour of the state.