Ex-Defence Minister Kezerashvili sentenced to five years in prison in absentia

Georgia’s former Defence Minister under the United National Movement government David Kezerashvili, who is a co-founder of the opposition-minded Formula TV, has been sentenced to five years in prison for misuse of more than five million euros back in 2008 which should have been used for military exercises. 

Kezerashvili has responded that he will appeal the ‘unfair verdict’ to the European Court of Human Rights. 

He says that the founder of the ruling Georgian Dream party Bidzina Ivanishvili and PM Irakli Garibashvili are standing behind the verdict which aims ‘to threaten me and Formula TV.’ 

Kezerashvili has been charged for other, alleged crimes in Georgia. 

However, he has been on the run since 2012.

He left the country shortly after the Georgian Dream coalition defeated the United National Movement in the 2012 parliamentary race.